"Mary Poppins Returns"

It took until the 364th day of the year, but I believe that I saw today what was, for me, the best movie of 2018, "Mary Poppins Returns".  As I indicated in my most recent Grandstander post, I had just seen the 1964 original a few days ago for the very first time, and I loved it, and it was great to have it fresh in my mind when seeing this one today.

As some might think, this is not a remake of the 1964 original that starred Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.  It is rather a sequel to that one.  It takes place a few decades after the original one.  Michael and Jane Banks are now adults, and the recently widowed Michael is still living at 17 Cherrytree Lane with his three young children, and he is faced with a multitude of problems, the foremost being that the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank is about to foreclose on a loan and repossess his house.

As his sister Jane tries to help him in his efforts to keep their family home, who comes into their lives once again but the mystical and marvelous nanny of their youth, Mary Poppins.

I won't say anymore about the storyline or the plot, so you need - I mean you really need - to go see this one yourself.

The movie was directed and choreographed by Oscar winner Rob Marshall and it gives you great music and dance numbers, beautiful and colorful costumes, amazing animation and special effects, and a simply wonderful performance by Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins.  It would be unfair to compare her to Julie Andrews, so I won't, but if you judge her on her own merits, she is just terrific.  She can speak volumes with the look on her face and the raising of her eyebrows, and man oh man, can she sing.

Blunt and Miranda

"Mary Poppins and Jack"

Instead of Bert the chimney sweep, this one gives us Jack, the lamplighter, or "leery", as played by Lin-Manuel Miranda.  This is Miranda's first big show biz splash post-Hamilton, and perhaps the expectations were too high for him, thus some critics have been lukewarm to his performance, but I thought he delivered very well in the role.  One of the musical numbers did feature him doing a rapidly rhyming semi-hip-hop number, so that was kind of cool, but this certainly was NOT "Hamilton meets Mary Poppins" if that's what you were expecting.

Another criticism I have heard of this movie is that, well, it's okay, but the songs can't hold up to the songs of the original movie.  Maybe, maybe not.  Perhaps, those critics should allow for the test of time to see if some of these numbers will grab hold of the public and become the next "Spoonful of Sugar" or Chim Chim Cher-ee".

Let's face it, in 2018, there was a lot of stuff going on out in the world that was unpleasant and discomforting.  "Mary Poppins Returns" is a movie that gives you something that is fun to watch and to listen to, that is beautiful to look at, and, more importantly, sends a quite positive message, and ain't it nice to see and hear something positive?

To me, at least, "Mary Poppins Returns" is the best movie that I have seen in 2018, and it gets the full Four Star rating from The Grandstander.