SAVING MR. BANKS

Always a fan of a good 'real-life story', Saving Mr Banks was one of my most anticipated films of 2013; marketed as the true account of how Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) convinced the author of Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson),  to let him adapt her beloved novel into a film for the big screen I was intrigued by the story and excited to learn more. Travers was notoriously against the idea of Mary Poppins becoming a Disney film and it took Walt Disney twenty years of asking before she even agreed to meet with him, and

Travers was adamant there would be no animation

once the film preparation was underway an epic battle ensued between Disney and Travers as she insisted on being involved with every aspect of the adaptation - she was adamant that the film would not include any songs, any animation or any made up words.

I think it is is clear to see who won that power battle.

As well as following Disney and Travers on their journey of creating the movie, the film is made up of many flashbacks of Travers' troubled childhood, particularly the turbulent relationship with her father (played by the brilliant Colin Farrell), thus providing a deep and somewhat emotional insight into why she was so protective of her book and it's characters. Although at times these flashbacks could be a bit emotionally exhausting they were incredibly valuable to the narrative and as her past visually unraveled the audience were able to connect with Travers in a way that would not have been as effective had it merely be mentioned verbally.

However, the main strength of Saving Mr. Banks was without a doubt the incredible cast. Emma Thompson is one of my favourite actresses and her portrayal of the stern, uppity P. L. Travers who is haunted by the memories of her childhood was extremely powerful. Likewise, Tom Hanks as the lovable 'buddy-buddy', all round 'good guy' Walt Disney was brilliantly played and although he didn't have an excessive amount of scenes, the film would have faltered without him as he stole every scene that he was in. The supporting cast can not be faulted in any way - from Ralph, Travers' driver, to the Sherman Brothers - every character had a role to play, nobody felt like an awkward spare part or was left behind and each actor gave a great, well-rounded and human performance.

Julie Andrews with the real Walt Disney & P.L. Travers 

Despite the strong performances and entertaining narrative there were aspects of the film that I found a little difficult to swallow. As this is a Disney film of course it was always going to be on Disney's side - the film concludes with Travers overcome with emotion and jubilation at the final Mary Poppins, when it is renowned that in reality she was outraged by her treatment and the loopholes that Disney had snuck into her contract that undermined the creative decisions they had previously agreed on. As a result Travers refused to let any of her future books be adapted. In fact, Travers was so offended by the way that Disney treated her book that when asked for the rights to make Mary Poppins a West End musical she agreed only on the condition that no Americans were to take part in the production of it.

The sugar-coated, 'happily-ever-after', 'Disney-is-such-a-great-guy' element was a little too sickly and forced when you are aware of  the reality behind the film, but as a work of fiction, and if you allow yourself to let go of the reality and maintain an element of ignorance, the ending was incredibly powerful and when I left the cinema I felt slightly dazed by the emotional roller-coaster that I had experienced as a result of the flashbacks and Travers' fictitious yet heart-breaking reaction to the final film.

All in all, Saving Mr. Banks is a charming and heart-warming film - powerful performances and an intriguing plot make it an interesting and captivating watch. I do recommend seeing it but be sure to take what you see with a pinch of salt instead of a spoonful of sugar and remember that although he is undeniable the incredibly creative man behind most of our childhoods, Walt Disney wasn't truly the 'all-round good guy' as so desperately put across in this film.

★★★★☆

Saving Mr. Banks is out nationwide from the 29th of November

Stay tuned for more reviews and follow me on twitter if you fancy it :)

Love,

THE GREAT GATSBY

I am going to start this review of by saying something controversial: I read the book The Great Gatsby and if i am being totally honest... I didn't love it.

No, wait, come back! I promise I have stuff to say that you might agree with and won't strike your literary soul with horror the way my opening statement did. I just didn't realise when i first picked up the book that ultimately, The Great Gatsby is a love story. The tale of unrequited love and, well, a pretty great man who throws some pretty great parties whilst being in love. Other than love and parties not a lot really happens and even though it is a pretty short book, it dragged.

Now, onto the film. Despite not loving the book i was super excited to see the film... The excitement came around the time the words Baz Luhrmann were uttered in the same sentence as it and was even more intensified when Leonardo Dicaprio and Carey Mulligan were announced to play Gatsby and Daisy. An element of doubt set in when Tobey Maguire (seriously, what?) was cast as Nick but all in all, despite the bad reviews i was hearing, i was excited. 

To start with, as i expected, the film is visually stunning. The luxury, picturesque buildings, the extravagant parties and the beautiful 1920s fashion... Aesthetically i was in love. The beauty of the scenes combined with Luhrmann's trademark directing technique made it a joy to look at and i think even if i hated everything else about it, the pure beauty of the film would have been enough to make me enjoy it at least a little bit. Luhrmann is one of my favourite directors and this is because i love the fast-paced, carnivalesque nature of his films. I think any other director even thinking about making Gatsby into a film is, quite frankly, unacceptable. If anybody was going to bring those fantastical parties to life it was Baz and he delivered 110%.

Carey Mulligan is beautiful as Daisy

Onto the casting. Carey Mulligan has been a firm favourite of mine since i saw her in An Education four years ago. She is simply beautiful and such an elegant, graceful woman in every role i have seen her in and she floated into Daisy's shoes in a similarly elegant manner and with such amazing beauty that shone through the screen. However, in the book i found Daisy to be quite a one-dimensional character. I had absolutely no feeling or emotion towards her and i am sad to say that this translates into the film as well. I don't think it is by any means a reflection of Mulligan or Luhrmann; they did everything right but, for me, Daisy just isn't a character i can bring myself to care about. There just isn't enough there for me to relate to as she doesn't really have a lot of dialogue and we are told very little about her life, aside from her relationship with Gatsby. I think Daisy's transparant character is more a reflection of the expecations of women at the time of Fitzgerald's writing above anything else. Saying this, the scene where Daisy is preparing to marry and the string of pearls breaks as she is screaming did bring a lump to my throat when watching. Carey Mulligan might not have been able to breathe life into a lifeless character but everything that she did do was beautifully acted and for that, i can not fault her.

Tobey Maguire's comical facial expressions introduced us all to a new Nick Carraway

Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway... Where to start? I can't even begin to tell you how shocked i was when Maguire was announced to play the character who ultimately carries the novel. The story may be about Gatsby but in every sense of the word it is Nick who is the protagonist so casting somebody who had pretty much disappeared since his last big film almost a decade ago did not seem a wise choice for me. Tobey Maguire is Spiderman. To me and to many other people this is all he is known as... Could he really carry the film adaptation of one of the biggest literary classics to exist? As soon as the film started, i was wary. He was definitely not how i imagined Nick to be when reading the book, he was just too awkward - too much of a wallflower, i know Nick is the one who observes the whole story but he doesn't just blend into the background the way that Maguire did. As well as this new awkward personality that Maguire introduced to Nick, it was distracting that he seems to only be able to do facial expressions that border on comical, it is difficult to take him seriously. His facial reactions and the way he responds to other characters almost seemed like a caricature but i have to say, after about half an hour this grew on me. The small essence of slapstick comedy that Tobey Maguire embossed into every facial expression eventually worked for me and i will be completely honest and say that they only worked because of Baz Luhrmann's directing technique. The whole film was very bizarre, very carnivalesque, very caricature and once the parties and the fast-paced nature of these scenes got into the swing of it Maguire's silly face blended in naturally with the rest of the carry-on around him after initally sticking out like a sore thumb. Similarly to Luhrmann's other great films like Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet, a lot of the shots were sudden close-ups of the character's faces and although Maguire definitely does not portray the Nick Carraway in the book, which i can see would annoy fans, he does portray an acceptable and watchable Nick Carraway. I did need time to get used to him but in hindsight i think he was a good, not great, choice.

Leonardo Dicaprio: A truly great Gatsby

Oh Gatsby... As with most people my age i have been a huge fan of Leonardo Dicaprio for as long as i can remember, he was one of my first 'favourite actors' having watched The Basketball Diaries at a young age and even then i remember thinking how astounding he was at acting - my love of him is not just down to his sexy good looks. Therefore i could not have chosen anybody else to play the iconic literary character of Jay Gatsby. He did say 'Old Sport' a hell of a lot but all in all he made a pretty great Gatsby (i didn't even mean to make that lame little pun there but i am leaving it in because it's true) He has the charisma, the depth, the look of Gatsby. He was so close to how i pictured him to be when reading the book and i actually connected with film Gatsby a LOT more than i did with book Gatsby. Something about the sad, painful look in his eyes and the hidden anguish he portrayed so well. In the book i was somewhat unaffected by the ending but in the film i was edging towards tears. It just broke my heart to see Gatsby fall apart the way that he does and personally i truly believe that Dicaprio brought Gatsby to life in ways that the book could not. My ultimate favourite scene in the film is when Gatsby is throwing all of his shirts over the stairs; he just looks so happy, so carefree - Dicaprio's entire face transforms, he had the youthful, fresh, innocent look that he did in his early days. It looked like a genuine transition of emotion, not just your bog-standard actor putting across that emotion, you can see that Dicaprio really did feel it and it is little things like that that make the film and fully engross you into the storyline and lives of the characters.

On top of this, there are many other pro-points to the film: The on-screen chemistry between Leonardo Dicaprio and Carey Mulligan was out of this world. They really looked like they were in love with eachother and the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby was enchanting, even if Daisy as a character was not. The supporting cast was amazing and i couldn't fault anything about any of them and very little of the main narrative was changed in the transition from book to film, which is a rare feat nowadays and must have made fans of the book pretty happy. There genuinely were a whole lot of plus points to this movie but the biggest negative was that i found it around about half an hour too long. There was a section in the middle where it all just seemed to drag and the audience had already understood the pain and anguish at unrequited love but Luhrmann seemed keen to reinforce that as much as possible... And this was too many times for my liking. As i said, the book is pretty short and i had already wondered how they would make it into a feature length film at all, let alone a two and a half hour one. However, similarly to Les Miserables, the prolonged middle section of the film was more than made up for by the incredible ending. The last fifteen minutes had me hooked and the very, very last scene - though really predictable - sent shivers down my spine.

As i wasn't a huge fan of the book i will actually congratulate The Great Gatsby for, in my opinion, being a film that is actually slightly better than the book. Other than cutting down some of that middle section i couldn't think of anything more they could have done in order to improve it. And my love for Baz Luhrmann may be slightly responsible for this but i like to think it is a film that will be enjoyed by most!

All in all i award The Great Gatsby with ★★★★☆

Stay tuned for more reviews and follow me on twitter if you fancy it :)

Love,

BILLY AND ME

I know that Giovanna Fletcher's debut novel Billy and Me is most definitely not a film, so it may look a little out of place on my otherwise film-orientated blog but let's just ignore that. The book is about a normal girl, Sophie May and her relationship with Hollywood heart-throb Billy Buskin so that's enough of a connection to make it film-relevant... Right?

Anyways, when i received an advanced copy of Billy and Me in the post i literally squealed with excitement. The worst part of my daily life is the near three hours i spend on trains, tubes and buses each day as i commute to my job in Camden so new and exciting reading material is always a sure way to make those commutes a little less boring and i just knew that this book in particular would be something special.

I am not usually a chick-lit kind of gal, my all time favourite book is The Perks of Being a Wallflower (of which i have 5 copies of, including one sent to me by the phenomenal Stephen Chbosky with a beautiful message to me inside... And of course i have the DVD... And it's soundtrack... Plus a tote bag. Okay and maybe a notebook.. Shhh, we're getting off topic!) and although i love those rom-com films i never really felt the urge to divulge in romantic novels, Billy and Me definitely popped my chick-lit cherry and i'm sure the question on everybody's lips is was it good for you?

To which my response is: Yes. And a smiley face :)

Giovanna has this incredible ability to connect the reader to the story in ways i did not think possible. I felt like Sophie was my friend; having read the book on my way home, each time i walked through my front door i felt the urge to tell my mum about what my friend Sophie has been up to and you wouldn't believe what Billy did and did you see Billy and Sophie at the BAFTAs??? But then i would have to harshly remind myself of the fact that these people aren't actually real and are most certainly not my friends.

The plot itself is heartfelt and as a reader you feel a true emotional involvement. It isn't just a typical light and fluffy love story with perfect characters and happy ever afters. Each character has their flaws and this makes them so much more human and thus so much more relatable. I love realism in books and films, i love seeing characters respond to things in a way that i can understand and relate to. One of my biggest pet peeves when gorging on a work of fiction is when something so implausible happens that you are quickly swept back into reality and lose all ability to get lost in that particular fictional world ever again. Sophie and Billy and all the other wonderful (and not so wonderful) characters that we meet are real, and that makes you, as a reader, instantly connect with them. The story line itself isn't just mushy conventions; there's some real heartache and pain hidden beneath the surface and i will warn you from now that Chapter 23 in particular is very emotional and highly charged so maybe have some tissues at the ready for that one; the last thing i want is for you all to be blubbing on the tube during rush hour like i was (Cheers for that, Gi!) 

Read with caution!

Of course it's not all realistic doom and gloom because at the end of the day that isn't what we sign up for when reading romantic novels, is it? The ongoing essence of Billy and Me is ultimately heartwarming and feel-good. As a reader you can live vicariously through Sophie May as she fulfills every hot-blooded woman's dream of dating a sexy, rich and famous Hollywood actor. Even if it might not be all it is cracked up to be. I may have shed a few tears when reading and although some were sad tears, there were definitely some happy tears thrown into the mix, as well as a few laughs and a constant, beaming smile and thirst to read on.

Billy and Me is one of those painstakingly annoying and conflicting books that you want to read as much as possible because you can't find out fast enough what is going to happen next, but at the same time you want to read really, really slowly so that you can savour every lasting moment and put off the unwelcome but inevitable fact that it will actually have to end at some point. I don't think i could have dragged out reading those last few pages for any longer if i tried. I was reading and then re-reading paragraphs as i felt the lessening amount of pages i had left to read and when i did finally read the last word on the last page i felt that really heavy, lost emotion that you always feel when you come to the end of a great piece of fiction - whether it is a book or a film or a play, you know that it was good when that post-fiction hangover comes along!

Once you read Giovanna Fletcher's Billy and Me i think that it will become clear to all that Giovanna is 'not just' Tom from McFly's wife, 'not just' Mario from TOWIE's sister, 'not just' the pretty lady singing on YouTube with a beautifully vintage voice... She is Giovanna Fletcher; an incredibly talented author who is carving her own path as she prepares to take the literary world by storm.

One day Eddie, one day.

Billy and Me is a brilliant debut from a brilliant author, it entertained me, it emotionally drained me (cheeky rhyme - nice!), it kept me busy on the otherwise boring commutes and distracted me from the vast amount of nose-picking business men i normally see on a daily basis... And, most importantly, it gave me a little insight of what to expect when Eddie Redmayne finally realises his undying love for me and asks me to be his wife!

...Well... I can dream, right???

All in all I award Billy and Me: ★★★★★




Due for release on the 23rd May, you can pre-order your own copy here

Stay tuned for more reviews and follow me on twitter if you fancy it :)

Love,

Author Giovanna Fletcher, Emma Willis and Me