Mary Poppins Returns

Sometimes, I don't think the folks at Disney give Mary Poppins or her creator enough credit.

The 1964 musical is a unique achievement that should be cherished instead of treated as an ordinary piece of intellectual property. It was one of Uncle Walt's last projects, and it featured some terrific performances (even with Dick Van Dyke's amusingly unconvincing cockney accent), technical marvels, a well-constructed story (by P.L. Travers) and unforgettable tunes by sibling songwriters Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman.

To their credit director Rob Marshall (Chicago) and his collaborators clearly give Mary Poppins Returns their all. You can tell a lot of time, effort and expense is involved, but after 54 years, they're fighting a losing battle against the law of diminishing returns.

Emily Blunt is suitably confident and assured despite the intimidating prospect of stepping under Julie Andrews' magical umbrella. Jane and Michael Banks (Emily Mortimer and Ben Whishaw) are now grown up, but Depression-era London has new challenges that only the world's most famous nanny can handle.

Actually, that's part of the problem.

David Magee, who wrote Finding Neverland and Life of Pi, inadvertently reduces Mary to an enchanted bystander. When she arrives on the scene Michael and his three kids face eviction, Mary offers some emotional support, but one gets the sense better record keeping might help the Banks clan more than Mary's literal flights of fancy.

To cut Michael a little slack, it has been hard for him to focus because his wife has recently died, so he and his offspring (Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh and Joel Dawson) are a little distracted. If he could locate a stock certificate for the bank that's about to foreclose on his home, the crisis could be averted.

The characters onscreen can't find the document, but you'll be able to locate it within minutes of the film opening. Because the solution is obvious, the stakes the Banks family faces don't have the sense of urgency they should. "Chekhov's stock certificate" doesn't have the same ring as "Chekhov's gun."

While Magee incorporated material from a couple of Travers' Mary Poppins stories, she's not around to offer advice. Neither is Disney. If they were, they might have suggested fleshing out the characters. As the main banker, the able Colin Firth is reduced to garden variety cad. With mere greed as his motivation, it seems pointless to hire an Oscar-winner for the role. It's about like asking Carlos Santana to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Straight, without any of his trademark, vibrato-less sustain.

The tots are curiously bland, and Meryl Streep gets to demonstrate another accent in service of a forgettable role and a dull song. While Mark Shaiman (Hairspray) is a skilled composer, his new songs simply take up time until one of Marshall's impressive dance numbers.

Richard Sherman's catchy tunes featured brother Robert's effortlessly assembled lyrics. Part of the reason their tunes still work is because Robert never simplified his words. He correctly figured out youngsters would still figure out his ideas despite his intricate language. Then again, his tunes drove the story instead of acted as a diversion. Some of Richard's music cues remain, but they only serve as a reminder of the previous movie's delights.

The sets and the breaks to animation are still delightful, and it's nice to see that some Disney veterans are still spry despite the time that has passed. Lin-Manuel Miranda plays a gaslight operator who appears to be a relative of Dick Van Dyke's chimney sweep. Like his predecessor, his London drawl isn't that authentic, but he also has the same enthusiasm and agility.

Current advances in special effects actually lessen the current installment's sense of wonder. We've seen a lot of this stuff in the last 54 years, so it's harder to make people's jaws drop.

A few years ago, Disney patted themselves on the back with Saving Mr. Banks, where the fussy Travers (Emma Thompson) spent most of the film preventing Uncle Walt (Tom Hanks) from demonstrating his genius. In real life, she was a much more interesting woman (she was well-traveled and bisexual). With Mary Poppins Returns, her ghost is finally getting revenge on the smug Disney.

MovieStyle on 12/21/2018