A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: I'm not crying, YOU'RE crying!
By Jim Slotek
Rating: A
There is something very current at work in the reaction of audiences to movies involving Fred Rogers.
His 2003 death evoked sadness, but nothing like the emotional catharsis that has been provoked by a recent documentary (Won’t You Be My Neighbour) and now by a very personal and cleverly rendered Tom Hanks movie called A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks) probes the state-of-mind of his interviewer, Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys)
Somehow, the loss of Mr. Rogers, a thoroughly decent man who preached a gospel of kindness to generations of children, aches much more in a social and political landscape awash in anger and pain (and “leadership” that sets that tone).
The upshot is that virtually everyone I know who’s seen this movie by Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) reports, often with embarrassment, that it brought them to tears. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is based on a 1998 Esquire article by Tom Junod, about an interview that turned into an intervention, in which the interviewee is someone who makes everyone he speaks to feel like the most important person in his world.
The real Tom Junod never punched his father (Chris Cooper) at his sister’s wedding, as does the attack-dog journalist Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) in this movie. But his antipathy towards his father, and paralyzing feelings of self-doubt were real, as are many of the words spoken by Hanks’ Fred Rogers in this dramatically juiced Hollywood take.
Lloyd, disbelieving the possibility of anyone being so above reproach (and being infamous himself as a writer of “take down” articles), reluctantly accepts an assignment to profile the Pittsburgh-based PBS personality. His jaundiced bad attitude going in is reflected by his wife Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson) saying, “Lloyd, please don’t ruin my childhood.”
Lloyd’s introduction is prefaced in the first scene of this often-playful movie, with the apparent opening of a Mr. Rogers episode in which Hanks’ Rogers begins a gentle talk about pain and anger with pictures of “My friend, Llloyd.” The movie then uses the scene-shifting device of cardboard buildings and toy cars, similar to what you’d see on Mr. Rogers’ set, morphing into Manhattan. This is a charming device Heller uses repeatedly to inject a childlike innocence that softens otherwise impersonal urban landscapes.
In every sense, this is Lloyd’s story, with Fred Rogers’ character reflected via his effect on his new friend. But Hanks, who’s made a career out of portraying decent men, soulfully fleshes out this Presbyterian minister of unwaveringly positive resolve.
His earnest parries with Lloyd involve the journalist looking for side routes into his psyche, including his off-camera relationships with his children. Hanks’ performance includes a subtle “reveal,” a hint that being Mr. Rogers is hard work, and comes with some cost. The movie never sullies his image, but hints at the sacrifices and occasional pain he’d experienced on behalf of spreading his message.
There are some very funny lines in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, much of it predicated on the outwardly ludicrous meeting of profound cynicism and hope. Lloyd’s character arc is well handled by Rhys (The Americans), and the denouement is one only a Scrooge could call humbug.
As for the rest of us, I’m not crying, YOU’RE crying.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Directed by Marielle Heller. Written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster. Starring Matthew Rhys, Tom Hanks and Chris Cooper. Opens wide Friday, November 22.