Saving Mr. Banks is about the story that linked Walt Disney and Pamela Lyndon Travers, author of Mary Poppins.
In the film, Paul Giamatti plays Ralph, the only fictional character in the screenplay, who is the writer’s personal driver.
Paul Giamatti – Saving Mr. Banks
Ralph is very kind and somehow befriends the impossible Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers.
He is a great actor, even just as a driver in a supporting role and the scene in which the two greet each other at the airport is very emotional and delicate.
Paul Giamatti playing Ralph
She reveals that she considers him the only American she ever liked and she signs a book for Ralph’s daughter, a girl with disabilities, who is in a wheelchair.
Paul Giamatti is an American actor and producer. His paternal grandfather’s family were Italian emigrants and the family surname was originally spelled “Giammattei“.
So far Emma and Giamatti have acted together in a single movie but they have shown great chemistry and they have been proved to be a well assorted couple.
Emma Thompson and Paul Giamatti
I hope that in the future they are planning to make more films together because I really love Giamatti’s acting.
On Saving Mr Banks he plays Ralph, Travers’ chauffeur, and the two, after some initial diffidence, gradually develop a great empathy so much so that in the end she allows him to call her by name, despite her dislike of Americans, except Ralph, evidently.
P.L. Travers and Ralph
Ralph with his politeness penetrates the depths of her heart while for all the others she is unpleasant and high-handed.
For me one of the most touching scenes is that in which he takes her to the airport and they say goodbye. Great acting and lots of feeling from both actors!