A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) | Film Review

“You were once a child, too.”

Fred Rogers was the man we all turned to during tough times, who taught us about morality. The man who educated us about the importance of expressing yourself and managing emotions. Most importantly, Mister Rogers showed us how to be kind. His quote, “you were once a child, too” was a response to a group of doctors asking how they could calm children down, and is the essence of the way he operated. He made it seem so easy and yet, with him gone, we fear we will never know another like Fred Rogers. But what if I told you that we can all be like Mister Rogers?

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is a remarkable film taking a deeper look at the true story inspired by Tom Junod’s Esquire article “Can You Say… Hero?”, which is quite different than what you might be expecting. Most viewers recognize the film title, see Tom Hanks’ incredible personification of Mister Rogers and connect the two as, “Oh! This is a movie about Mister Rogers”. Well, yes, it is… but not in the way you might be thinking.

At this point, the vast majority of us know who Mister Rogers is. It’s about time we get to see just how exactly he has impacted others.

Whether you fully realize it or not, most Americans born before the year 2000 had some exposure to Mister Rogers and his television program, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. His influence in our society is endless and his impact is insurmountable. This impact didn’t require you meet Mister Rogers, it only required you to watch his show or clips of him, or encounter another who has. A gentle but strong soul with a natural gift for reaching children in a deep mental and emotional capacity. A man with candor, humility, honesty, and with openness. He was, and is, so often seen as “unattainable”; too good to be true.

While Fred Rogers’ vulnerability is infectious, it is certainly not unattainable, and this is the purpose of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Yes, it is telling the story of Junod via the film’s lead character, Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), and his life journey while his boss forces him to do a profile on Rogers, but it’s about so much more than that. The beauty of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and Fred Rogers overall, has always been his unique tendency to reach an untraceable number of people from all age groups in helping them deal with their emotional responses and face their lives without even realizing it. Rogers did this with Junod, and in the film, he does this with Vogel. We are finally able to visualize Rogers’ influence in someone’s day-to-day life.

Lloyd Vogel, a man whose life is seemingly on the decline with repressed daddy-issues on the rise, is an investigative journalist with the practice of interviewing subjects warmly, but his poor reputation comes after, when they read what he writes about them. A wildly talented journalist, just one who no one likes or wants to give a chance to anymore… except for Fred Rogers.

After Lloyd Vogel is initially told his new assignment is to profile Mister Rogers for an article on heroes, he sneers back with condescension. Now, not only is he not doing investigative work, but he’s profiling a man beloved to so many, which he believes is all a ruse. In some ways, it makes sense. Lloyd’s life experiences have taught him not to trust what you see on the surface and his career is built around the idea that not everyone is who you think they are. He seems to be the only one who doesn’t “get” Mister Rogers. Even his own wife Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson) is a fan who was affected by The Neighborhood as a child.

When Lloyd travels to Pittsburgh to Rogers’ set and is welcomed by Bill Isler (Enrico Colantoni), the President & CEO of the Fred Rogers Company, he finds protective but equally understanding and empathetic individuals around Rogers, who slyly nudge him towards reconsidering his initial analysis. Lloyd is right about one thing, though: Fred Rogers is not who Lloyd thinks he is. He isn’t some con-artist, he isn’t hiding anything. When Vogel meets Mister Rogers, he finds a gracious man, dodging all of his questions for an interest in his interviewer, denying all of his own perceived fame.

Throughout A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Lloyd is made to realize that being kind and controlling anger or other emotions is not easy; it actually requires daily practice and a lot of work, as it does for Fred. We all have things we can do to manage these feelings, like running or swimming, or banging your hands on the bass clef of a piano. Lloyd’s encounter with the ever-delightful and gentle Joanne Rogers, played by Maryann Plunkett, serves as one of the final catalysts to helping Lloyd realize Mister Rogers isn’t perfect – just like he thought – but that no one is. This offers us a reminder that with enough effort, we too can be kind and less impulsive with our emotions.

Constant correlations to the real-life Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, director Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me?, The Diary of a Teenage Girl), delivers with powerful punches and alarmingly realistic scenes. Heller quite obviously took her time in ensuring that each character really embodied the individual they represented and made beautiful scene transitions using the old-school aerial shots of the neighborhood. The likeness in the hair and makeup, the puppets, the songs, and the actual camera work while (re)creating scenes on the Neighborhood set all represent Heller’s driven desire to give the audience the Rogers we know and love.

Even down to the hand-knitted red sweater Hanks wore. A quintessential staple of Mister Rogers’ wardrobe as he transitioned from business man to every-day loving neighbor that kids could connect with. Surely, it could have been easier to just buy a red sweater, but costume designer Arjun Bhasin chose to hand-knit all 8-10 sweaters needed for production. These choices reflect the level of care taken to truly honor Mister Rogers.

Tom Hanks’ iteration of Fred Rogers is dignified, deliberate, and just as calming as the man himself. I don’t know about you, but whenever Mister Rogers came on the screen, I always had a literal sigh of relief. Immediately with Hanks, I felt this too. I took a peaceful, deep breath in and a long exhale. Hanks falls into the character, which is critical and can be wildly difficult for such an esteemed and revered actor, but he does it. A few moments of slipping back into what we can see as Tom Hanks are few and far between, hardly noticeable. This is the performance we all had dreamed of and suddenly, hope is brought back into our worlds.

It isn’t just Hanks that delivers, though. Matthew Rhys’s Lloyd holds a majority of the screen-time and stands alongside one of the greatest actors in history who is playing one of the most iconic people to ever live. That alone requires work and demands attention. Rhys pushes the emotional envelope and allows us to see actual personal growth in his demeanor and delivery. His character is grappling with the past and the present, pushing away Rogers’ initial attempts, ultimately finding his way.

As the story continues, Lloyd battles his internal demons and external familial fears, with Mister Rogers as more of the backdrop to the film. It may seem strange that a movie about Mister Rogers appears to be more about someone else, with Tom Hanks’ Rogers in more of the supporting role, but isn’t that what Mister Rogers has always been? Supportive. He’s never wanted the spotlight on himself, he’s wanted the spotlight to shine on everyone struggling while he helps them along on their journey.

The stunning tale in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is the epitome of Mister Rogers and it reminds us that we can all be more like him, we too just have to put in the work.