A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)

By: Mike Ward on Saturday, January 04

PG Running Time: 109 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

  • Tom Hanks is perfectly cast as the iconic Mr. Rogers. That is reason enough to experience A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.

  • Marielle Heller’s wonderful, nuanced touches make this a film that warms the heart and stirs the mind. Heller is simply not given the proper credit for how talented a director she truly happens to be.

  • The message the film delivers on love, kindness, and acceptance is something we all could stand to hear right now - a beacon of light, if you will, amid such a sour and increasingly toxic world.

NO

  • Many will be surprised to realize that Mr. Rogers (and Hanks) is a supporting character here and not the main focus of the film.

  • The film sometimes feels like a tale of two stories and unfortunately seems to struggle when the focus is squarely on Lloyd Vogel’s character and not Fred Rogers.

  • Some may find the film overly sentimental and sweet. Not my take, but the screenplay has left some people feeling the movie over dramatizes event to hit its points squarely on the nose.


OUR REVIEW

Director Marielle Heller’s clever take on how PBS personality Fred Rogers changed the life of a jaded journalist assigned to write a puff piece on the children’s television legend, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, is often an emotionally rewarding and winning film.

The film truly works best when Tom Hanks slips into the skin of Fred Rogers (a/k/a Mr. Rogers), whose wonderful incarnation of the iconic television host is simply sublime. Whether we are on the set, watching Mr. Rogers sing us into an episode of his daily television show, while he puts on his cardigan and slides into comfortable shoes, or we see him interacting with cast, crew, or children who guest star on his show, it is hard to not be won over by Hanks’ genuine kindness and warmth.

While marketing and trailers seem to indicate that Hanks is the main character, he actually supports the main story, which, based on true events, involves writer Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) and struggles he is having both personally and professionally.

Lloyd is married with a young child and although he has won awards for his work in the past, he finds himself recoiling from his latest assignment for Esquire Magazine. His editor (Christine Lahti) has tasked him with writing a 400-word story about Rogers for a feature on modern heroes. Believing it beneath him, Lloyd begrudgingly visits the set of “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood” and thinks he will just rush through the story, slap some words together, and be done with it.

However, Rogers is tickled to meet and work with Lloyd and his genuine, folksy charm begins breaking down Lloyd’s hesitation.

As the two men get to know each other better, we see Lloyd’s family life is in turmoil. Complications with his estranged father are unresolved and walls form when Rogers becomes inquisitive about his interviewer. The screenplay by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster (Maleficient: Mistress of Evil) weaves in and around the different corners of Lloyd’s life and how he inventories his personal struggles with advice and kinship from a celebrity who is every bit the kindhearted soul he portrays on television.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood mostly balances its emotions impressively, largely because Heller is keenly aware that this story could quite easily reach toothache levels of saccharine melodrama and groan-inducing cliché. As she did with 2018’s excellent Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Heller is able to dig deeper into the characters and explore what makes them unique and distinctive. While it would be easier to just allow Hanks to impersonate Mr. Rogers and have Rhys play off of that, she takes the time to push beyond the page and create wholly believable characters we grow to care for and have concerns about.

Unfortunately, the film loses momentum when solely focused on Lloyd, with Rogers absent and off screen. A storyline involving Lloyd’s father (Chris Cooper) doesn’t quite stick the landing and the domestic strain he faces with wife Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson) wobbles a bit and never rises above the din of dramatic network television. However, the letdown in script consistency is not apparent in the performances given on screen, especially with Hanks’ effortless incarnation of the television legend.

Overall, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood finds Hanks at the top of his game in a film that may be more melodramatic than some are expecting, and may have a different focus than audiences are anticipating, but eventually finds its voice as a heartfelt ode to friendship, love, and the strength we gain from others in helping us overcome personal obstacles.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys, Chris Cooper, Susan Kelechi Watson, Maryann Plunkett, Enrico Colantoni, Tammy Blanchard, Noah Harpster, Christine Lahti, Maddie Corman, Daniel Krell, Jessica Hecht.

Director: Marielle Heller
Written by: Micah Fitzerman-Blue, Noah Harpster
Inspired by the article, “Can You Say…Hero?” by Tom Junod
Release Date: November 22, 2019
Sony Pictures/TriStar Releasing