The buzz on the film (which premieres on Sunday at the London Film Festival) has been solid
in advance, and Thompson (who like Streep, has two
Oscars) has her most promising role
in years as «Mary Poppins» author P.L. Travers, which combines the always awards - friendly elements of a tragic backstory and a sharp - tongued old lady (of which Thompson is the third
in contention, after Streep and Dench).
My apologies
in advance if the four acting categories end up sounding the exact same, for a rather extraordinary occurrence happened this
year in that all four frontrunners ended up winning all four major awards leading up to the
Oscars, an occurrence that I can't recall having happened before.