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Tom Hanks’ Mister Rogers Anchors A Moving And Mournful ‘Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood’ (Review)

This article is more than 4 years old.

Director Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is not a Mister Rogers biopic. It is a thoughtful, probing, somber and eventually uplifting human drama that happens to feature the beloved PBS children’s show host as a key supporting character. It is less interested in the life of Fred Rogers than it is in the lives touched by him, offering a singular story as a way to distill the man’s complicated essence into a surprisingly potent conclusion. Tom Hanks gives one of his better performances in awhile (and that’s saying something) in his refusal to explain or elaborate on the man he is playing. Fred Rogers is aggressively and performative-ly kind because he chooses to be, even when it’s hard... especially when it hurts.

The ways in which Heller (Diary of a Teenage Girl, Can You Ever Forgive Me?) uses the structure and familiar set-up of the show to frame and drive the story is frankly remarkable. This is a truly cinematic movie, with visual invention and genuine cleverness that shows that all parties, but especially Heller, weren’t going to just use the “Tom Hanks as Mister Rogers” gimmick as a crutch or an excuse to let nostalgia take over. We get a hint of this right from the start, as Rogers introduces himself and the film’s core protagonist as if he were a character in the show. The movie spells out its messaging right off the bat, and then spends the rest of its brisk 109 minute running time showing how hard it can be to live up to the ideals in play.

The core story involves magazine writer Lloyd Vogel, played by Matthew Rhys and loosely based of Tom Junod whose Esquire article (”Can You Say Hero?”) inspired the film, and his personal struggles as he welcomes his first-born child. Yes, modern journalists will cry with laughter (or just cry) at the notion of a reporter being sent on assignment for a 400-word profile for which he can essentially take all the time he needs, but I will say that the film’s locales feel lived in and economically accurate in a way that you usually only get in Alexander Payne or Diablo Cody flicks. That goes both for the cramped apartment which Lloyd and his wife (Susan Kelechi Watson) share and for their newborn baby who actually looks, sounds and acts like a newborn.

The film’s core drama is established right off the bat, as an altercation between Lloyd and his estranged father (Chris Cooper) brings long-simmering anger and resentments to a head. By coincidence or design, his editor (Christine Lahti) sends him to Philadelphia to interview Mister Rogers as part of a comprehensive “real life heroes” feature. The assignment is seemingly beneath the award-winning writer, better known for digging up dirt than celebrity puff pieces. He meets with Rogers a few times throughout the movie, and, yeah, it seems that the guy is every bit the person he “plays” on TV. If you think that conversations with Mister Rogers are going to help Lloyd come to terms with his anger and possibly make peace with his (deservedly) estranged dad, well, yeah. But the journey works.

Micah Fitzerman and Blue Noah Harpster’s screenplay subtly makes Rogers the story’s core antagonist, not the villain mind you, but a character who represents an impediment and an obstacle to defeat or embrace. Hanks’ turn is a delight, as we see that Rogers’ consciousness attempts to be aggressively kind is a continuous effort, almost akin to flexing a muscle, and all the more impressive for not always being his natural state. Much is said about healthy ways of coping with anger, as well as acknowledging the people who made you who you are, for better or worse, and small-scale drama feels authentic and painfully human. Forgiveness is not a right, and it is not always right, but when it’s hurting you more than them, well...

Without spoiling the film’s emotional highlights or key plot beats, but just know that it ends fairly without compromising its humanity for the sake of a super-mega-happy ending. It is heartwarming, to be sure, but it also notes that heartbreak and heart warmth both involve the same organ. Lloyd doesn’t learn that Fred is as wonderful as everyone says, even as he witnesses the constant adulation he receives in public, but rather that Rogers’ reputation is both authentic and very much a choice, one that requires hard work and sacrifice. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood argues that being kind or forgiving can be just as painful to you as being cruel or resentful can be to someone else, but that it’s worth it in the end.

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