One of the most emotional and enriching movie experiences of the year
Because of a standard marketing campaign, the highly-touted A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is being subtly sold as a biopic of the beloved children’s TV host Fred Rogers. It’s easy to see why the studio has taken such an approach. The man continues to be so iconic and resonant for generations of people, that to not feature him prominently would be to almost insult him. But the makes of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood know there’s already a stellar recounting of the man’s life in the form of last year’s Won’t You Be My Neighbor, the Morgan Neville- directed documentary which explored the life of Mister Rogers to weepy, heartwarming effect. This effort respects both the doc and the man by offering up another story; one of a chance encounter between an ordinary individual living a damaged existence and the man himself. But nothing about A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, including and especially the participation of star Tom Hanks, is what one would call expected. Instead, this is a film that is truly surprising, uniquely human and deeply profound.
Inspired by a true story, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood centers on Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), a successful writer for Esquire magazine, who has spent years running from his past, which includes a compromised relationship with his sister Rachel (Tammy Blanchard) and a virtually non-existent one with his estranged father Jerry (Chris Cooper). Still, Lloyd’s own personal existence is a pleasant one thanks to his loving wife Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson) and their infant son. When his editor (Christine Lahti) assigns him to do a profile on Mister Rogers (Hanks) in an effort to bolster Lloyd’s prickly reputation, he begrudgingly accepts. As Lloyd sits down to interview the television icon, he soon finds his life changed forever.
For those looking forward to seeing one beloved American figure portrayed by another, rest assured, there are plenty of moments in which Hanks conjures up the man himself, bringing his simple, but endlessly wise philosophies to the screen. Director Marielle Heller and screenwriters Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster have crafted a film which shows a Mister Rogers in his purest form, imparting the kind of approach to life which radiated true goodness. Heller uses the power of the medium to beautifully bring out the essence of them every chance she gets, most notably in a restaurant scene between the two characters. When Mister Rogers finds that the cynical Lloyd refuses to let go of the darkness of his past or his overall jaded nature, he tells him: “I want you to take a minute, Lloyd, and think about all of those people who loved you into being who you are.” For the length of an entire minute, the restaurant, its inhabitants and the audience watching, are all quiet as the guarded and contained Lloyd finds himself slowly taken over by his emotions. What makes the movie such a standout in its own right, is how well it’s able to function on its own merit when Mister Rogers isn’t in it. And yet, the spirit and influence of Fred Rogers manages to find its way into virtually every scene in one way or another. The instances in which Lloyd is forced to face his dark relationship with Jerry are infused with the words of Mister Rogers which have infused themselves into the former’s soul, coloring and reshaping his overall outlook.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is ostensibly the story of one man’s fateful encounter with a figure he was happily ready to dismiss right along with his trademark brand of optimism and joy; neither of which he felt he had any use for. While there are plenty of conventional ways for telling such a story, Heller adopts a slightly fanciful method as she manages to keep her film grounded in reality. Much of the movie’s structure is centered around a make-believe episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in which the host, talking directly into the camera, presents a picture of a visibly bruised Lloyd, and describes the circumstances which have brought him to his current state. It’s a charming and clever device that the movie travels back and forth as its makers choose to exist in both Lloyd’s reality and the one Mister Rogers sees. When the two meet, an air of magical realism takes over the film as we see Lloyd trying to navigate a life and death situation, hurriedly catching buses and trains that are shown as props from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. This particular sequence culminates in a way which illustrates the healing power a person like Fred Rogers can impart as a tired Lloyd finds himself hallucinating and back in front of his deceased mother’s hospital bed. Choked up with emotion at the sight of the woman he lost years ago, his mother calms him down by lovingly saying to her son: “Let go of the anger you’re holding onto. I don’t need it.”
Hanks may have the marquee value, but this is Rhys’s film, hands down. Always considered to be an actor of depth and substance in any vehicle he’s in, Rhys carries A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood with a broken edge and rawness which perfectly conveys his character’s complicated nature. The way he handles Lloyd’s struggles and demons with true poetry makes him one of the film’s most compelling aspects. He’s wonderfully aided by a committed Cooper and an almost ethereal Watson, both of whom are given enough material to help understand Lloyd better without feeling as if they exist soley for his character. But most will be fixated on Hanks and his interpretation of the man virtually everyone in the audience grew up with. His opening scene does make one question if he’s the right fit, but the way the movie titan is eventually able to embody the soul and sensibility of the real man with a loving gentleness, all but ensures that no audience member will wish they were seeing anyone else in the role.
I couldn’t have thought of a better follow-up to Heller’s previous film, the sublime Can You Ever Forgive Me?, than this tale which redefines the term “heartwarming.” Yet both, it and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood share the common ground of lost souls using their trades and talents as an armor against their pasts and the people they’ve let themselves become. Obviously the more commercial of the two (box-office potential isn’t even a question), this film will have to deal with it’s share of preconceived notions from those venturing to the theater to watch it, mainly due to it’s high-profile star. After having played a cavalcade of real-life people, from Charlie Wilson to Walt Disney, the casting of Tom Hanks as Mister Rogers is simply a given. Yet it won’t take long, nor will it take much, for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood to win over those watching it thanks to its tribute to a beloved American hero and the indellible form of love he embodied.