A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) – M. Heller

I am one of those people who grew up watching Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood on PBS (and I sometimes wonder whether this is one of the things that encouraged me to move to Pittsburgh in the mid-90s).  I am still keen to see Morgan Neville’s recent documentary (Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, 2018) but it hasn’t come my way yet.  Instead, despite my general dislike of Tom Hanks (as an actor, if not a person), who plays Fred Rogers, I thought I would give this film a try.  And I must confess that I liked it – because it is very weird!  First of all, it isn’t a bio-pic.  Instead, it is based on an Esquire magazine article that details how a cynical “broken” writer Lloyd Vogel, played by Mattthew Rhys, is assigned to interview Rogers in 1998 (for a special issue on “heroes”) and the transformative effect the meeting has on his life.  Sure, it is one of those uplifting films (like Silver Linings Playbook, which I also enjoyed) that can move you – but Hanks’ portrayal of Rogers is so damn odd that it is hard to look away.  At one point, he suggests that Vogel and he take a minute to think about all the people who loved and cared for us when we were small and the camera allows Hanks to gaze goofily out of the screen at us (this technique also seems drawn directly from attachment theory’s recent “security priming” interventions that boost well-being/reduce insecurity).  The problems that Vogel faces – family drama with dad Chris Cooper – are probably not too unusual and there are many adults with emotional problems out there – overcoming them for a heart-warming finale is screenwriting 101.  But the intervention of Mr. Rogers – the fact that there ever was such a person as Mr. Rogers – seems extraordinary.  Director Marielle Heller and her team manage to inject some creative elements (dream sequence, models of Pittsburgh and NYC that echo the TV show’s sets/methods) but in the end it is Hanks who pulls this off.  Now I’m going to be gentler with my kids!