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. To an extent, that’s true, but it is not the focal point of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.

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

Unfortunately, he isn’t much better at home. His loving, 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 learn where much 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 they last spoke 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, followed by the familiar opening credits song we all have memorized by heart. He swaps his sports jacket for his red cardigan and his loafers for sneakers. Today’s episode features a picture board with five closed doors, each opened to reveal some of Mister Rogers’ friends, including one of his puppets, the local mailman, and other colleagues from the show. 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. Mister Rogers tells us that today’s episode will be about forgiveness.

Lloyd goes into the interview and the writing of the piece, and no one is as genuine as Mister Rogers appears. Lloyd isn’t trying to expose him so much as shed light on the fact that what you see on camera doesn’t necessarily mirror what you see off 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 Junod’s character, and the layered cynicism slowly peels away as the two men get to know each other.

Not to be missed is the complexity of one American icon (Hanks) portraying another (Rogers), 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’s not a criticism, just 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 appears just enough to be effective, but not so much that he becomes the focal point 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 it doesn’t need a big-screen viewing. I enjoyed this film more than the 2018 documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor.

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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