A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)

Beloved American icon Tom Hanks plays beloved American icon Fred Rogers in 'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.' Now if you've decided your going to make a movie about Fred Rogers the big issue is what's the story going to be? Wisely deciding not to go with life spanning bio-pick 'Beautiful Day' like Rogers himself is centered on the idea of personal relationships, it's not in a hurry, it's about changing lives through decency, empathy, and personal connection. The framing device is the writing of a 1998 Esquire Magazine cover story about Rogers, originally planned as a short piece to be included in an issue dedicated to 'heros' it grew into something much bigger when its author Tom Junod found himself profoundly affected by the time he spent with the children's television host. The real life Junod is here fictionalized as Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) and given a personal arc of reconnecting with an estranged father (Chris Cooper). Apparently the father/son reconciliation of the story while not true of Junod, is inspired by an actual familial reconnection facilitated by Rogers.

The material in the film is for the most part treated pretty straight, there are some stylistic flourishes, including a framing device of Rogers introducing and commenting upon the story as he might if it were an episode of his television program. There is also an enjoyably trippy nightmare/dream sequence where Vogal finds himself trapped on the show, included for a time as a puppet sized, rabbit eared version of himself in 'the land of make believe'. Rhys is tasked with most the movies dramatic heavy lifting, story wise, owing to the actors most famous role as Phil Jennings on the cold war themed series 'The Americans' there is an element where I was like 'don't trust him Mr. Rogers he's a Russian spy, he could kill you.' So Rhys is quite good, and the supporting cast is fine including Susan Kelechi Watson as Vogal's wife Andrea. But you really didn't come to see them, you came to see Hank's as Rogers, and I have a few things I want to say about the performance and the man.

Now a major arc in this film is Vogal trying to figure out Rogers, trying to determine with his investigative reporter prowess if this guy is for real or not, if he is what he appears to be. There is a certain enigma to Mr. Rogers, it can be hard to know just how to take him. There is this whole aura that has built up around him, like he's a Saint, and its countered out in the either with this idea that he has something to hide, including the urban legend that he was a sniper in the Korean War and heavily tattooed under his trademark sweaters. There is a moment in the film where Mrs. Rogers (Mary Plunkett) spots Vogal giving her husband one those "I don't get you" looks, and she responds with this gentle smile like she's seen that look a lot, and she never ceases to be amused with the existential  challenge her husband seems to pose for some people.

Hanks plays Rogers as a man of surprising discipline, a man who can hold in his emotions, whose like a monk. In one scene Vogal, not in the best mood, is pushing Rogers some on how difficult it must have been for his children growing up with him as this larger then life father, Hanks has this look in his eyes of "I really don't like what your telling me", but he holds back when he might want to lash out, and tries to turn it into something constructive. Rogers was in a sense a man who had to always be 'on', he was himself, I think truly, but also a stream lined version of himself a 'character' of Mr. Rogers who was too important to others to risk letting the seems and cracks show. To do anything  "out of character" he had to do them in another "character". This is talked about by his children in the documentary film from a couple years back 'Won't You Be My Neighbor' that when he had to say something 'un Mr. Rogers like' around the home he would sometimes slip into one of his puppetry voices like King Friday or Lady Elaine Fairchilde. There is a moment where Rogers is talking to Vogal with the Daniel Stripped Tiger puppet, and it's strange, more then a little off, in another story its the kind of guy who would become a serial killer, here it's channeled towards connection not away from it.

The film has been lightly criticized for downplaying Rogers religiosity, he was an ordained Presbyterian minister, but even Rogers himself downplayed that in his public persona. Though he had a life dedicated to ministry it was not a conventional one, he sought to reach out to the vulnerable child in all of us, and validate that children, to suffer the children as corny as that sounds. This captures some of that, and hints at the human man behind it that struggled successfully to do that for most of his life. Which makes 'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood' as satisfying as a retelling of the parable of the Good Samaritan. ***