AN absorbing study in creative tension, Robert B. Sherman and younger brother Richard M. Sherman wrote the songs for “Mary Poppins” and many other classics despite barely getting along personally.
This documentary by their respective sons Gregory and Jeff — who met only a few years ago because the families have been estranged for decades — paints a vivid dual portrait of Bob, an introspective World War II veteran, and his ebullient younger brother, Dick.
Their father, also a songwriter, brought the brothers together as a team, and Walt Disney installed them as his in-house tunesmiths. But despite Oscars and a string of hits, the Shermans began to drift apart after Disney’s death, although they continued a strictly professional relationship and smiled together for the cameras into the 1990s.
Bob refuses to acknowledge Dick’s overtures at the Broadway premiere of “Mary Poppins,” but Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and a host of other notables sing the praises of the estranged siblings, whose work is illustrated by copious film clips.
Running time: 100 minutes. Rated PG (a reference to concentration camps). At the Sunshine, Houston Street and Second Avenue.