A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, the much-anticipated biopic about Mister Rogers and his television show, isn’t so much about the man as it is about a story about a man coming to terms with the life he has, letting go of the anger he carries, and becoming the husband and father that he knows he can and wants to be. It’s an interesting take on a trailer that makes you think that this film will be all about Fred Rogers’ (Tom Hanks – Cast Away, Captain Phillips) life on and off the camera. And to an extent, that’s true, but that is not the focal point of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.

Matthew Rhys (F/X’s The Americans, The Post) plays Lloyd Vogel, a journalist for Esquire magazine. He has been assigned to interview Fred Rogers for a puff piece, which Lloyd, a cynical, hard news reporter, scuffs at. However, he has no choice as his editor tells him that of all of the well-known figures to be featured in an upcoming Heroes edition of the magazine, Mister Rogers is the only one who has agreed to talk to him. The reason is that Lloyd is known around the industry as a distrustful jerk who presents a kind face in his interviews only to trash them when he writes the piece.

Unfortunately, he isn’t much better in his home life. His loving and tolerant wife Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson) and their newborn baby Gavin often play second fiddle to the maudlin Lloyd and his journalistic career. However, we do learn where a lot of his pessimism comes from. It is rooted in a deeply fractured relationship with his father, Jerry (Chris Cooper – Breach, Seabiscuit), who left the family for another woman when Lloyd’s mother was struck with terminal cancer. It’s been nearly 20 years since the two have spoken before Jerry reappears, hoping to make amends with his son.

The movie plays almost like an episode of the show, with Hanks’ Rogers appearing in the first scene to the familiar opening credits song that we have all memorized by heart. He swaps his sports jacket for his red cardigan and trades his loafers for a pair of sneakers. Today’s episode features a picture board with five closed doors opened individually to show some of Mister Rogers’ friends, including one of his puppets, the local mailman, and his other show colleagues. But the fourth window shows a miserable-looking picture of Lloyd. With a bruised nose and grim face, the photo almost looks like a mugshot. We learn from Mister Rogers that today’s episode will be about forgiveness.

Lloyd goes into the interview and the writing of the piece that no one is as genuine as Mister Rogers appears to be. Lloyd isn’t looking to expose him as much as he is to shed light that what you see on camera doesn’t necessarily mirror what you see off of the camera. The problem is that the more Lloyd gets to know this legendary man, the more he sees how genuine and sincere Fred Rogers actually is. The two form a genuine friendship, and the second is that Fred takes an authentic interest in Lloyd and his family. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is based on a November 1, 1998, Esquire article by Tom Junod. Lloyd is a recreation of the Junod character, and the layered cynicism slowly peeled away as the two men got to know each other.

Not to go unnoticed in this film is the complications involved with one American icon (Hanks) portraying another American icon (Rogers) who is so well-known and revered. In a nuanced performance and one that will be remembered as one of his best, Hanks quietly but masterfully measures Rogers’ rhythms, his kind and authentic persona, and his ability to command the presence and control any room he found himself in, whether it be in front of the camera or off of it. In the wrong hands, this could have been a disaster…maybe even a mockery of all the good intentions it desired to have. But with director Marielle Heller, whose previous films The Diary Of A Teenage Girl and Can You Ever Forgive Me?) were much heavier and darker in tone, at the helm, this was never a concern.

It’s interesting how a movie billed as a Mr. Rogers biopic can keep Mr. Rogers as a supporting character. That is certainly not a criticism but rather an observation. In fact, after watching the movie, I wouldn’t want to have it any other way. This story about family and forgiveness wouldn’t have worked with Fred Rogers as the focal point. His humanity and his own ways of dealing with his anger and grief helped show Lloyd the path to reconciliation with his father and how to be the supportive husband that Andrea needed him to be. Rogers was in the story just enough to be effective but not so much that the focal point became him rather than Lloyd.

The music felt a little corny, but that’s to be expected with a movie centered around a children’s television show. The film was set in Pittsburgh and New York in 1998, but honestly, it felt more like 1988 to me. The setting felt older and more tired than something around the turn of the century.

Overall, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is a good movie, but not one that needs a big screen viewing. I enjoyed this film more than the documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor, released in 2018.

Plot 8.5/10
Character Development 8.5/10
Character Chemistry 8.5/10
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 8.5/10
Directing 8.5/10
Cinematography 8/10
Sound 8/10
Hook and Reel 9/10
Universal Relevance 9/10
85.5%

B

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