The best scenes in the film are Travers' clashes with the screenwriter and songwriters of the movie, where they attempt to hash out the concept of the film and first introduce the memorable songs that will be soon be immortalized in our memories. Disney's in-house songwriters, the Sherman Brothers, played by B.J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman, are key to the humor and tongue-in-cheek playfulness of these scenes, and the battles with Travers can be humorous, but every time you start to become invested in this part of the film you're suddenly thrown back to Australia, where the movie falls flat for a pretty good length of time. Less flashbacks would have greatly improved the pacing of the movie and director John Lee Hancock should be blamed for failing to iron out the kinks in the screenplay (as well as the unconvincing, clear as day California backgrounds standing in for what's supposed to be turn-of-the-century Australia).
The actors themselves are very good though, and the performances of Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks do make the movie come alive in the present day setting. Thompson plays Travers very well as the cranky, fussy, uptight British woman she is, but the problem is that this character is almost impossible to make likable in any way. Some of her fussiness is amusing, but over time she becomes downright unpleasant and a pain to spend time with, even as a member of the audience. The only reason she's at all relatable is due to Emma Thompson's acting, which reveals the depth of her emotional pain as plainly as possible. And Tom Hanks is terrific as Disney, portrayed as a plainspoken midwesterner who seems to put on an act of cheeriness and charm when he's trying to get what he wants, but later shows off the hidden depth and manipulative nature of Walt as a businessman above all else. It's a clever angle to play up in order to humanize a man who's ultimately become more of a symbol and a brand, even by 1961.
The screenplay does try to make some points about the clash between art and finance, and brings up questions about whether the price of a person's integrity over their artistry is really ever worth it, and for those reasons this is worth seeing. But the awkward structure and fairly boring direction do not allow the movie to rise above merely serviceable in the end, despite the potential in the script and good performances from the actors.
* * 1/2
