Today after church I went with my sister Vickie to see "Mary Poppins Returns" at the Northridge Pacific Theater. Oh man.......where should I start? We absolutely loved this movie. It's really just perfect in every respect, so let's start right at the top with Emily Blunt. If you are my age, that means you were a little kid when the original "Mary Poppins" was released (I was four years old), and it also means that you fell in love with Julie Andrews as "Mary" and have regarded her as an icon in that role ever since.
So how could any filmmaker or production company ever even think of making a sequel to such a magical film? How could they get anyone who could even approximate Julie Andrews' performance?
The answer is Emily Blunt, who wisely did not try to emulate Julie Andrews but instead created a "Mary Poppins" of her own, not far from the original and just as fastidious, but a bit more tart and firm, perhaps. A bit more Blunt, if a pun may be permitted.
OMG, she is perfect as "Mary Poppins" for a new generation, while keeping Mary's character intact right down to her posture and proper diction. The whole deal with the original "Mary Poppins" phenomenon was that it came at a time when English culture was being celebrated in the United States and around the world. "Mary Poppins" hit American theaters at the height of Beatlemania, so you had this massive infusion of Englishness (not British or UKishness) in the Summer of 1964, and as Vickie said this afternoon, "we all wanted to be English then", meaning the older kids who knew what was going on. I knew what was going on, too, even at age four, but I just thought the whole world was that way, full of the magic of movies and music created by these people with funny but beautiful accents.
Emily Blunt recreates all of the magic and charm you associate with Mary, and I think hers is a performance (and this is a rare sequel) that can hold it's own with the original. There are now two Mary Poppins, and both are fantastic, or even........shall I say it? (Supercalifrigilisticexpialidocious).
I had been aware of Lin-Manuel Miranda since he became famous with "Hamilton", but I had never seen him prior to this movie. Chalk up another Oscar worthy performance with Miranda co-starring in the chimney sweep slot, taking over where Dick Van Dyke left off and leading several show-stopping musical numbers that will have your heart leaping even as you hold back a tear or two of nostalgia.
I confess I had to deliberately think of what today's NFL playoff scores might be, at certain points in the film, to avoid the need of a handkerchief.
Miranda seems to be a legit Big Time Star, and he puts a smudgepot Cockney smile and spark into the picture that provides a contrast to Mary's clean perfectionism.
For a third Oscar nod, I nominate Ben Whishaw as "Michael Banks", the head of the household at 17 Cherry Tree Lane. The character of Michael was a child in the first "Mary Poppins". Now he has a brood of his own, and though he is a widower, he gets by with the help of his sister (Emily Mortimer), his maid (Julie Walters), his children (all perfectly cast), and of course Mary Poppins, who arrives just as you might expect, at the moment she is most needed. Whishaw gives an affecting performance as the harried father who is on the verge of losing his house to an unscrupulous banker (Colin Firth) to whom he is indebted for a second mortgage.
The repossession of the Banks family home is the main plot thread of the movie, and to the credit of director Rob Marshall, he never lets loose that tension, even while all forms of fantasy are developing and breaking out around the talents of Mary Poppins. She is a Nanny but also a magician, with one foot in the real world of learning and discipline and the other in metaphysical impossibility, which to her makes anything entirely possible.
Every cast member is exactly right for his or her role, right down to David Warner as a crusty old Veddy Brrittish Admiral, slightly kooky, who lives across the way from the Banks. There are also several cameos, each in amazing scenes, from Meryl Streep and Angela Lansbury, and one more guy who I cannot reveal but who I am sure you can guess.
I just recently wrote about having seen parts of "Cleopatra" here at Pearl's a week or two ago. I wrote about having never seen it before, though I knew of it's history and reputation, but what I was left with, having watched only about an hour onscreen (and on a television set), was that "Cleopatra" was the greatest looking movie I had ever seen, with color the likes of which I didn't believe had been equaled and sets that were akin to ancient temples and courts.
This is why I need to mention the art direction and production design for "Mary Poppins Returns", because the job these artists have done, in conjunction with the costumers, has resulted in a look so colorful and mindblowing, that it will take you a day or two to absorb everything you see and hear.
It just may be the best looking movie you have ever seen.
There is so much going on, and so much music, that when each fantasy sequence takes place you are swept again away, still processing what you had just seen beforehand.
Vickie summed it up briefly at film's end, as the credits were rolling.
"I am blown away.......maybe better than the original....I mean, nothing is better than the original, but....".
And these are my thoughts exactly. For me, "Mary Poppins Returns" is already the Movie Of The Year, and it is even bigger than that, because it is pure Disney Magic. In fact, it is the Disneyest movie I have seen since I can remember, certainly since the 1960s. There is amazing old style Disney animation, and a title sequence made of oil paintings that sets the stage for what is to come.
I too was blown away by "Mary Poppins Returns". I knew it was going to be good, and I had been following it's press releases since Spring of last year, and I was especially excited when Disney released the first snippet of trailer several months ago. Like most fans, I knew Emily Blunt would be perfect in the new role.
My advice : run, don't walk, to the theater to see "Mary Poppins Returns". Better yet, use an umbrella or a balloon as your means of transportation. It is an unmissable film, worth 20 Stars and Ten Thumbs Up, and that indeed is my review. /////
We had good singin' in church, I hope you had a great day, and I will see you in the morning.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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