What is the movie about?
It’s Mary Poppins, except she’s Emily Blunt now.
In more detailed terms, it has been twenty five years since the events of Mary Poppins have occurred, both Mr. and Mrs. Banks have passed away, and Michael, recently widowed with his three children, lives at 17 Cherry Tree Lane. Jane is an activist (which was truly a highlight of the movie for me) and lives in a flat in London. And Ellen, now played by Julie Walters, still works for the family.
Soon after the start of the movie, we find out that Michael has mortgaged his house in order to pay for his wife’s medical bills, and can’t keep up with the payments required, the bank sends a notice, saying that if he cannot pay by a certain date, he and his family will be evicted and the residence seized. Then he and Jane discover that Mr. Banks had stocks in the bank and that could save the house.
Around this point, Mary Poppins arrives, she begins to take care of the children, taking them on some patented Mary Poppins adventures, one of which involves falling through the bathtub to a magical underwater world. I will not deny, that one, that one was a little weird.
We are introduced to Jack, who Lin Manuel Miranda portrays having a great sweetness and care about him, and his and Jane’s slow-burning romance throughout the movie was one of my favorite things about the movie.
Eventually, Jane and Michael go to the bank, and talk to the head of the bank, who also happens to be Colin Firth, he promises to help them track down the official certification for the stocks, Jane and Michael leave, and then he turns out to be evil, burning the proof of stocks that he didn’t show them. Because the system is corrupt, and the Mary Poppins franchise KNOWS it.
The children go on adventure, reminiscent of the horse race escapade in the first movie, however this is a music hall and it’s on their mother’s old vase. They end up at the music hall, watch an above average musical number by Mary Poppins and Jack, and then the youngest, Georgie, gets kidnapped by some of the animals who work at the music hall. There is a strangely dark chase scene and they end up escaping unscathed, if a bit emotionally scarred.
Then Meryl Streep is in the movie for 5 minutes, has an average musical number. We return to the actual movie, because that scene feels like a complete brag on how they can have anybody they want in the movie and get them to dye their hair red.
The children end up finding out that the wolf who tried to kidnap their brother is, in fact Colin Firth, and they are disregarded and yelled at by their father. You know it wouldn’t be Mary Poppins without some parent-child friction. They are in process of moving everything out of their house and it is discovered that what Georgie used to patch up the kite (that was actually the one from the first movie) he found, was the certification.
They race to the bank, enlisting the help of Jack and his squad of everything men, who turn Big Ben back, allowing them to have more time. A climatic sequence of events happen, which end in Dick Van Dyke emerging, declaring himself Colin Firth’s uncle and the true owner of the bank. And he has quite the beard.
Everything works out for the better, and the movie ends with them holding magical balloons and flying into the air for a musical number, Mary Poppins leaves with her usual secrecy, and we cut to end credits.
So, was it any good?
Remember, I am a highly cynical person, however, that rarely applies when it comes to childhood nostalgia. I do love watching movies that I loved as a kid, and I will always be soft for them. I will admit that I did melt a bit for this movie.
I thought that they captured the spirit of Mary Poppins relatively well in the movie. It will never truly live up to the original, simply because of Julie Andrews, and how immortal and untouchable her portrayal of Mary Poppins has become. Emily Blunt did do an excellent job, and I think the movie excelled in large part due to her performance. The one and only critique I have is that when Julie Andrews was playing Mary Poppins, she was able to juggle several emotions at once, she could be stern and severe, but have a loving and caring air at the same time, and that was super unique, and I have yet to see somebody who pulls off that as effortlessly.
The soundtrack was good, there were two songs on there that I would listen to again, (A Cover is Not the Book and Trip A Little Light Fantastic), but the rest fell flat for me, I don’t remember any of the other songs and none of the tunes stick in my head, so while good, the soundtrack was easily forgettable.
I thought the movie was enjoyable, a worthy sequel. I believe that if movie studios keep pulling out reboots and sequels at the rate they are now, they need to be as good quality as this, AT LEAST.
Mary Poppins Returns may begin to stand as the golden standard of reboots/sequels, and I see myself being fine with that. The movie was excellent and worthy of the praise it received.
My opinions –
This is is my FAVORITE part.
Because the amount of opinions I have for this movie are many, I’m going to do this bullet point form, because otherwise it’ll be a mess –
- I thought that having Meryl Streep and Colin Firth in the movie was just a flex, they wanted some big names that they didn’t need in the mix and it felt like they were trying to boost the big name aspect of the whole cast, which felt unnecessary. Neither one of them brought anything important or different to movie. They could have found somebody much better than Colin Firth to play the bad guy. It felt very much like a Hugh Grant in Paddington 2 situation, great actors, but don’t have them in these roles, it doesn’t suit them and it doesn’t feel like a good performance.
- I thought that performance wise, Emily Blunt and Lin Manuel Miranda knocked it out of the park, they both pulled off their characters with lots of charm and great singing, their chemistry was fantastic, the characters had great respect for each other and they had a friendship that really brought that whole relationship to another level. One that Mary and Bert never seemed to be able to reach, simply because it seemed like there might be something romantic there, but I found that the pure friendship between Mary and Jack was all the better for lack of romance.
- I felt that Mary Poppins was very about the children, the movie was about Jane and Michael, and their family to an extent, but it felt centered on the two of them. In this movie, the children felt a bit shunted to the side when they were with Mary, it was completely about Mary Poppins and when they were with the adults, it was very much about the problems that the adults were facing, they didn’t feel like the heart of the movie, they were there to accompany Mary Poppins, who was the true star of the movie.
- I loved Julie Walters as Ellen, even simply as a background character, she has the sweetest vibe about her, and whenever she appears I feel so happy, she deserves much more recognition than she’s getting, and I think casting her was a smart move.
Conclusion –
An excellent movie, that proved itself to be a worthy sequel/addition to the Mary Poppins franchise.
I truly believe that this movie can be summed up in a single sentence –
Mary Poppins Returns.
An Overabundance of Opinions 