Brief Movie Review: A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

General Thoughts

I’ll have to say that this was definitely a movie that came to me as a surprise. I had watched “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” in 2018, and I had expected something along the same lines — a “documentary-ish” movie that depicted the life of the beloved Fred Rogers. I watched Mr. Rogers Neighborhood when I was growing up, like assume most people reading this review did, up to a certain age. PBS still shows reruns of it, so I’m fairly certain everybody has some idea of what to expect.

In fact I had taken my thinking cap off before going to see the film, and sort of zoned out for the first few minutes, which seemed as if they were following exactly in that vein. For me that feeling held true, until the early wedding scene between prime protagonist Lloyd Vogel’s sister and her non-erudite fiance. The event becomes disastrous for the journalist, when he came to odds with his father and physically confronted him over his drunken comments about his long departed mother.

After the first punch landed, it sorted jolted me into the mental place of “Drama, not documentary”. I immediately woke up, and started to pay the required attention that was needed to intake information that I already wasn’t aware of. I think there were probably at least a few other people in the theater, that were called to action in a similar manner.

The dramatic character of the film escalates in spurts throughout the course of almost 2 hours, but at no point do I feel that it takes away from the life of Fred Rogers. Through the various argument scenes, and hospital scenes, and even strange immersive Land of Make Believe scene where Vogel seems in a bit of cliched, but still heartwarming way, to confront the origin of his darkness and the rift between his father and himself, the movie draws you in to plot about the unexpected.

I was very pleased with the movie overall. And of course I enjoyed Tom Hanks portrayal of Fred Rogers. His depiction of Mr. Roger’s unreal stoic nature seemed a bit unsettling, but still not cartoonish. Since people surrounding us generally aren’t generally like Fred Rogers at all, the contrast is made even starker when you realize (or at least recall, for the super fans of his) that this was actually a real person. This was the way he behaved with people in reality and not some fictionalized depiction of a “modern day saint”.

The few small revelations about Fred Roger’s life, through his early, strained conversations with Vogel, really stood out to me. It took very little exposition on the part of Hanks, for me to understand that — yes there was a really deep and complex person beneath the veneer of a simple children’s entertainer, and the life story behind the person had palpable and real dimensions. In particular, I’m speaking about the scene where Fred talks, very briefly, about the challenges of raising his two sons. He’s being questioned by a visibly frustrated Vogel, who’s struggling to get Fred to speak in an ill manner about weight he is bearing.

Something about that piece of dialog left me wanting to know more, but also not wanting to directly ask more about Fred’s history. By the time he’d finished speaking, I was satisfied that the concept of Fred Rogers and who he was and his function in that universe had been sufficiently exposited.

Towards the end of the movie, in one of the final scenes, Vogel’s family was sitting around this dying father, whom Vogel at this point reconciled with. Mr. Rogers pays them a surprise visit. The progression of events itself was unassuming, and predictable. It makes sense, because this is the type of movie that we want to end on a somber, yet somewhat hopeful note — which it was undoubtedly poised to do. However the directors manage to throw one more surprise out there. One of the last pieces of dialog that Mr. Rogers delivers is directly mentioning the 800 pound elephant in the room, amongst all the good tidings: Death. The mood shifts for everyone else in the room, when he says “Death is mentionable. Because it’s a part of life.” and “Anything mentionable is manageable”. Hanks execution of this line is what I believe to be near perfect. It’s just as you imagine a real person, who was respected and revered in a crowd of people would say it.

Overall the movie was pretty good. It was interesting, because like many others, I think I expected a 95%-100% “feel good story” but then actually got a dramatic and at times uncomfortable movie, which I guess is the stuff of great (or at least better than average) films. The movies that make you feel something, especially when you’ve accumulated a lot of movie experience and have “felt it all”, are really the ones you want to write about and watch.

Rating: 4.5 out 5