A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, based on the magazine article by Tom Junod - Nine out of 10

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, based on the magazine article by Tom Junod

Nine out of 10

This is a note about the film, with Fred Rogers at the center of the story…

Although this motion picture has received only one nomination for the Golden Globes that will be awarded in just a few days, for the two-time winner of the Oscars, iconic Tom Hanks for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture, it remains to be seen what the members of the Academy will feel about this wonderful biographical drama, better for this cinephile than Knives Out Knives Out - http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/12/knives-out-written-and-directed-by-rian.html - the Farewell - http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-farewell-written-and-directed-by.html - or even the celebrated Once Upon time in Hollywood – a note at the same address as the aforementioned films…

A Beautiful Day is about the triumph of positivity, optimism over skepticism, cynical attitudes, with the kind, generous, self-effacing Fred Rogers aka the equally serene and admired Tom Hanks, at the center of the narrative, which is about the friendship that would be born between two rather opposite characters, once the equanimous, older man manages to help the younger, the journalist Lloyd Vogel aka the splendid Matthew Rhys, overcome his issues, the anger, the sadness and remorse, the hatred he feels towards his father, Jerry Vogel aka the always outstanding Chris Cooper – winner of the Oscar and Golden Globe for Adaptation – that had abandoned him and his sister, when his mother was dying in extreme pain, shouting and screaming as the public and the fugitive husband would learn.

Lloyd Vogel is an investigative journalist who had gained a reputation for being rather heartless and unlikable when his boss at the Esquire Magazine gives him an assignment, to make a profile of the very famous Fred Rogers for a series called Heroes and the man is more than displeased with the task, protesting that he does something else, but this is just the point, the editor wants him to change this image and feels that the interviews and the article he has to write would be the chance for a major change and anticipating, she may be right.

It is all credible, although some have dismissed the narrative as too corny, sugary and perhaps incompatible with the present – indeed, when all the passengers on the subway train recognize the admired Fred Rogers and start singing his tune about kindness, neighborliness: “it’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, would you be my neighbor…” it seems surreal and quite impossible, unlikely to happen almost anywhere today, when a fool is the leader of the free world and that surely reflects the level of that world.

To begin with, Lloyd Vogel is more than skeptical, adamant as he had been to skip this assignment, looks at the interviews with cynicism and a certain disdain, seeing as the interviewee is ‘playing with dolls for children’, especially after the vicious incident taking place at his sister’s wedding, where the abandoning father not only arrives, but comes to talk with his son and when this one is backing away and the mother is mentioned, Jerry Vogel says that the encounter with the long deceased woman was such a brief affair as to suggest probably some weakness, maybe vice, or even major flaw and this is more than the son would take and it all ends with a fist fight and a face with major signs on it.

However, Mister Rogers – the only one on the list of Heroes that would accept to be interviewed by the journalist with a vicious image, although he does not see himself as a hero and we would learn that he had read the articles by the young man and wanted to interact with him, surely because of his interest in the angry and the penchant he has to help others and take ‘their burden upon him’ – would see the interviewer on the set of the show he has and where he has a tent to work with, only he is unable to open and do much with it, accepting this failure and putting it on the air, because he says children have to see that adults often face problems and sometimes they have difficulty solving them…words to that effect, probably.

Matthew Rhys is perfect in the complex role, for to start with, he is almost contemptive of this older man, who ‘plays with dolls for kids’ and does not like the fact that he is in fact questioned – what is the name of his wife – Andrea – what happened with his face, he tells a lie, but then gradually opens up – then the talk show host would even play with the dolls, trying to help the process of opening up and releasing the pain, anger, deep sadness – that was a scene where this viewer thought he would reject such an approach, that is if someone would play with the dolls that would start nudging and talking to the viewer.

Perhaps quite a few in the audience would be provoked into thinking about their own problems – there is a very outré and intriguing scene during which Mister Rogers invites his companion to think of those who have helped him become what he is and then looks into the camera at us, for what seems like hours – and the under signed was made to think of the wrong way he dealt with his daughter – we still do not seem to connect, last time even during this film, when a question about alcohol was probably improper, misplaced – and how wonderful it would be if we all had the same manner, kindness, generosity, appeal of the ultimate hero of this movie.

He is not without a flaw and talks about the fact that his own children must have had a very hard time being the sons of such a celebrated figure, one of them not talking about it and the other confronting the issue somehow, and we learn that banging the piano is the way to deal with stress, having so many people write and ask him – Joanne, his wife, states that he writes hundreds of letters and is so involved with the others, always trying to help them.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is not just an excellent feature, it provides viewers with a fantastic Role Model, offers a positive, optimistic and ultimately beneficial approach to life – positive psychology studies have demonstrated that those who are positive, optimistic live longer, more successful private and professional lives and what is more, so do those who are in their vicinity, who benefit from the Halo Effect and the interaction with them…