Chance's Corner: Mary Poppins Returns Review

The very idea of Mary Poppins returning to us after a 54 year absence is enough to make anyone want to step in time, but the Mary who ever-so-delicately touches down here, a posher, perhaps sterner, incarnation brought to life by Emily Blunt, feels like a being from The Twilight Zone episode "The Parallel". In that episode, an astronaut comes back home from space, but something doesn't quite feel right. His wife and daughter are the same, but they feel off, just as he feels off to them. After a few more bizarre encounters, the episode ultimately suggests that the astronaut has entered a parallel universe, and that's just what it feels like in Mary Poppins Returns.

The film wants you to believe that Mary is back, but the Mary I saw didn't feel like her. She didn't even pronounce her trademark words quite right! A minor quibble, I know, and impossible to avoid. I do give Blunt credit for being courageous enough to fill the shoes so well worn by the indelible Julie Andrews. While she doesn't quite have the range that Andrews possessed, she makes a suitable successor. Lin-Manuel Miranda also proved to be suitable, although a lot of the burden was off his shoulders, as he's a new character entirely. Still, I don't think he carried the same energy as Dick Van Dyke did as Bert. That's hardly a fair comparison, though, seeing as Van Dyke is a dancing machine whose gears still appear to be well oiled!

Continuing with the parallel universe argument, Mary Poppins Returns takes several scenes from Mary Poppins and inverts them... literally, in one instance! Whacky Cousin Topsy (Meryl Streep) is the inverse of Uncle Albert (Ed Wynn). The cartoon world inside the cracked bowl (a bowl which Topsy never returned) is the parallel to the cartoon world inside the street chalk. The lamplighters' song and dance routine "Trip the Light Fantastic" cribs from the chimney sweeps' "Step In Time". I could go on. I think Mary Poppins Returns leans a little bit too much into the familiarity of the original film, so much so that I kind of just wished I was watching the original film - just as the astronaut wanted to return to his real home.

Still, I can't deny that Mary Poppins Returns has its heart in the right place and doesn't mean any malice towards the legacy of Mary Poppins, although I'm sure P.L. Travers would absolutely disagree. Oh well. The story is charming enough, bolstered by three likable and fiercely independent children, but it’s really a bit flat and uninspired underneath all the “stuff and nonsense”, as Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw) would put it. The stakes of the film rest on Colin Firth’s villainous banker, who is really just a one-dimensional scoundrel whose only motivation is money (who could have guessed?). Firth’s talent is wasted in the role, and he doesn’t even get to sing. A shame! Anyways, while the film isn't exactly supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (sorry, I had to), it still manages to have a touch of magic to it.