Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Mary Poppins Returns
Starring: Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw
Director: Rob Marshall
Genre: Musical
Rating: PG-13
RUNTIME: 130 Mins
When a movie is practically perfect in every way, the prospect of any sequel — let alone one produced more than 50 years after the original — seems like a recipe for disaster.
Luckily, with a hearty spoonful of sugar, Mary Poppins Returns manages to feel less like a cynical cash-grab and more like a visit from an old friend — even if the reality of her reappearance doesn’t quite live up to your fuzzy memories of the good ol’ days.
Set 25 years after the events of Mary Poppins, the sequel finds the titular nanny (who has effortlessly transformed into Emily Blunt) dropping back in on the Banks children when they’re all grown up. Feisty Jane (Emily Mortimer) is following in her activist mother’s footsteps as a labour organiser with no time for romance, and timid Michael (Ben Whishaw) is reeling from the death of his wife, simultaneously trying to take care of their three children, Annabel (Pixie Davies), John (Nathanael Saleh), and Georgie (Joel Dawson), while struggling to solve a stressful financial situation.
Needless to say, Mary blows back into their lives at just the right moment — once again intent on reminding both generations of Banks children that there’s nothing more valuable than time spent together.
It’s oddly thrilling to see the reunion between the nanny and her former charges, with Mary marching into 17 Cherry Tree Lane as if no time has passed, and Jane and Michael instantly regressing to their younger selves before realising that they should probably act like sensible, no-nonsense adults now.
Mortimer and Whishaw present a convincingly synchronised sibling unit, displaying all the same grit and determination that Jane and Michael possessed as children, while the three new Banks children are all precocious without being grating. The loss of their mother has forced them to grow up fast, and Davies, in particular, sells the cynicism of a kid who is used to holding things together when everything is falling apart.
As for the plot, Michael’s money troubles are ostensibly designed to add a sense of urgency to the proceedings, but the children’s adventures with Mary Poppins are so transporting (and increasingly bonkers), the film sometimes undermines the gravity of what the family is facing, which results in a bit of tonal whiplash.
But for the most part, in the steady hands of director Rob Marshall (a veteran of big-screen musicals like Chicago and Into the Woods) and writer David Magee, the story skips along at a jaunty pace and effectively recreates an enthralling — and occasionally ominous — slice of 1930s London, complete with a joyful detour into an animated world that comes close to recapturing the magic of the original.
Blunt has said that she tried to approach her iconic character just like any other role, rather than trying to imitate Julie Andrews — and that seems like the only sane choice, given the Oscar-winning, kitten-heeled shoes she has to fill. That results in a sterner (and hilariously, vainer) Mary, more in line with P.L. Travers’s books, but also adds gravitas to the film’s more emotional moments — and there are a few.
It takes a while to warm up to Blunt’s performance simply because she has a different rhythm from Andrews, but something clicks (perhaps not coincidentally) around the time that Mary and the children take a trip to interact with an assortment of anthropomorphic animals at a vibrant and lively animated music hall. From that point on, we have a better sense of Mary’s true self as she allows the children to see beneath her prim and proper exterior, and Blunt confidently makes the role her own with a little more sass than Andrews likely would’ve been allowed to portray in 1964.
In place of her old pal Bert, Mary’s new (platonic) partner-in-crime is his former apprentice, a lamplighter named Jack (Lin-Manuel Miranda), who is every bit as fleet-footed and charming as his mentor, with a Cockney accent that’s only slightly more convincing.
At times, though, the team behind Mary Poppins Returns seems a little too loyal to its predecessor. From the staging and choreography to the placement of the songs, the sequel sometimes feels less like an homage and more like an outright recreation of the 1964 classic, just set to a slightly different tune.
This is especially true of the music — written by Marc Shaiman with lyrics by Scott Wittman — which appears to purposefully parallel the rhythms and messages of the original, to the point where you might catch yourself comparing the two. While none of the songs are as immediately ear-wormy as the work of the Sherman brothers (and really, what could ever compete with Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?), each is charming in its own way — Blunt performs one of the most moving Disney ballads in recent memory around the halfway point of the film, and Miranda gets a chance to make his mark with a Step in Time-style dance number that’s exhilarating to watch.
Ultimately, Mary Poppins Returns isn’t practical or perfect — and at times it trips itself up by relying a little too heavily on your nostalgia for the original — but anchored by a heartfelt performance from Blunt, an irresistible turn from Miranda, and a bewitching desire to spark your imagination, it’s still a jolly holiday treat that won’t tarnish your appreciation of the original.
Now showing in: Cineco, Saar, Seef II, Wadi Al Sail, Avenues
