There’s a moment in “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” where Lloyd Vogel, the fictional counterpart of one Tom Junod played by Matthew Rhys, addresses an audience of fellow journalists and admits to them that he writes for magazines because doing anything else doesn’t feel like living properly.
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Writing reviews of movies in the blur of a festival can feel strange. There are so many options sharing endless opinions, overflowing with quotes and dissections and predictions and disappointment and sometimes just pleasant dismissal. It can feel trivial to keep writing them—why does the world need one more? Why should I be the one to say something that any other human being in the world would choose to listen to? Will these words affect their life in any way and what do these words have to say about mine?
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I mention all of this because in Marielle Heller’s outstanding third feature “A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood,” Tom Hanks is looking straight down the lens, and is asking me if I’ve ever felt like this. Maybe not always the this that I just typed out, but whatever specific feeling this is pointing to right now, whenever he’s saying it and whenever you’re reading this. He’s asking you specifically and to him, in the moment when you’re answering him, you’re the only person in the world that matters. He’s wearing a red cardigan because, in this movie, he is Fred Rogers, Mister Rogers, the beloved children’s television personality. Mister Rogers’ mission, as Hanks reminds Lloyd and the audience in the movie, is to try and give children positive ways to deal with their feelings. Mister Rogers enquires but most importantly, he listens. He lets things sit.
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Last year saw the release of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” an enlightening documentary about Fred’s career and way of life, and his enduring impact on the world. The first news of another film about the man, a national treasure of the past, now played by Tom Hanks, a national treasure of our current forever, was good—but it didn’t quite sound groundbreaking. That same year, Marielle Heller made waves with her tremendous sophomore movie “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” retelling the life of writer and literary forger Lee Israel, played by Melissa McCarthy. Again, on paper, it might not have sounded immense—but it remains one of the very best films of 2018.
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And so while the combined elements suggested something to look forward to in this new project, if anything it suggested something too comfortable to anticipate with any major adrenaline. It sounded like a safe crowdpleaser—but what it became is anything but. The movie, in layman’s terms, is about Tom Junod’s interviewing/writing process that led to his Esquire article ‘Can You Say…Hero?’. It began as a 400—word assignment, a profile of Fred Rogers as part of a wider feature about heroes and turned into a confessional masterpiece of nearly 9,000 words. That’s the effect Mister Rogers had on people—and it’s one that Heller has managed to bottle and deploy, to give her audience some kind of recognizable knot in the stomach, one of nostalgia, one of gratitude and grace.
Her Mister Rogers is one that should see Hanks earn wholly justified hyperbolic praise for his performance. It’s one of extreme care and pressurized restraint. Kindness on Mister Rogers’ level is something that requires immense work, that few people are willing to commit to—and this actor did. Hanks’ body language is at once stoic and vulnerable, the pace of his speech as Fred is slow, slower than most people. But the actor brings so much focus that it’s impossible to find a reason to move faster, if it would mean missing a single moment spent in his company.
What wasn’t clear when the news first broke was how much the film would find balance between the interviewer and interviewee, shedding light on Fred Rogers but also on Lloyd Vogel. Matthew Rhys triumphs as the jaded investigative journalist, fighting both his professional cynicism and deeply rooted resentment for his imperfect father. He’s also just become a parent, and the lack of security and the responsibility of caring for a new life cements his fears and regrets even deeper. It’s a transformative performance, one that begins with stony bitterness and gives way to an emotionally naked revelation without ever losing an ounce of gravitas. Denial gives way to reckoning and exposure, before finding confrontation and finally, catharsis. Relief.
Around the two men, Heller creates a world that blurs the lines between every form of communication to serve the panoramic impact of her sensitive, almost magical design. Television, journalism, conversation, hallucination, toy worlds, and wedding fights all come together in a playful and ambitious kaleidoscope of feeling that stays careful even when it reaches for the moon.
The only certainty of “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” is the article. This isn’t a biopic, and there’s nothing predictable or lazy about the incredible sweetness of its story. Wit and wisdom cut through the kindness when needed, finding a sweet spot to appreciate and meditate on the depth of both anger and love in turn. It feels like Tom’s unexpected, silver-lined reality of meeting Fred Rogers gave Marielle’s ambition its own flavor, to make a movie no one could have forecast – 400 words became 9,000, after all. The film successfully explains why it had to be Lloyd. Why it had to be Fred.
“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” reminded me of how one person’s words can change the world. How their feeling, or at least their intense and sincere understanding of someone else’s, can save a life. This might be just one little movie, and one of so many reviews – but people like Mister Rogers and Marielle Heller exist to make life feel like you’re part of something so much bigger. [A+]
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