My Review of "Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood"

In 2018 I reviewed a beautiful documentary about Fred Rogers called "Won't You Be My Neighbor". It was filled with nostalgia and informed us about how great Fred Rogers really was. A year later studios decided to make a drama called "Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" which stars Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers.

I didn't know what to make of this movie since I had watched the documentary not too long ago. At first I thought it would be a similar situation with the case of Philippe Petit. For those that don't know Philippe Petit, he was a famous tightrope walker that dared to walk from the tops of one world trade center tower to the other in New York City in the 1970s. There was a terrific documentary on that walk called Man on Wire. They later adapted it to a drama that didn't quite capture the same magic as the documentary but it was a good try. I was worried that "Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" would do the same to the Fred Rogers documentary I mentioned earlier.

Fortunately and unfortunately this is not the case for this movie. I have to warn viewers that this movie is not based on the life of Fred Rogers. It's based on Fred Roger's influence on a broken and damaged person.

The main character in this movie is actually Lloyd Vogel, played by Matthew Rhys. Lloyd is a pretty angry and frustrated man that needs help but doesn't realize it. Looking back at the movie I believe a lot of us can actually fit into Lloyd's shoes and not realize that we need help. So I can see the appeal of this character. Personally I found him not very likeable but he's not supposed to be likeable. This movie is based off a true story so this guy actually exists or he's based on a guy that exists.

The movie is based in the 90's and Lloyd is a journalist. He writes articles for a high profile magazine and he's great at it. The only thing is that he tends to write unfavorable articles of the people that he interviews so no one wants to interview with him anymore. This is when the editor assigns him to do Fred Rogers. Absolutely no one wants to do an interview with him because of his reputation but Fred Rogers agrees.

Of course Lloyd is a pessimist and reluctantly agrees to the assignment. He doesn't believe that Fred Rogers can be the persona he makes himself out to be on television. Lloyd makes it a mission to himself to expose Fred Rogers for what he really is.

This movie has a bit of a slow start but absolutely captivates you as the layers of Lloyd's family demons come out of the closet. Layer by layer like an onion he exposes why he's the way he is. It's also interesting the way Fred Rogers is able to expose these layers and continue to go on without showing frustration.

This movie is very much an inspirational movie. I think the whole cast did a great job in giving life to each of the characters. There is understanding of where everyone is coming from. What seems to be a villain can actually be sending another character an olive branch. There's tons of dimension in each of the characters. It was all beautifully done.

The art direction of the movie was quite well done as well. You'll see a ton of nods to the old television show. A rush of nostalgia will fall on you if you've seen the show before. They use the art direction of the original TV show and sprinkle it throughout the movie. It was a very nice touch that will have fans of the Mr. Rogers show feeling warm and fuzzy.

Most importantly I enjoyed this film. The last half of the film is really gave me a big wallop. I loved that they were able to make this film pretty emotional in the end without too many cheesy moments. I knew what was coming but I was welcoming it with open arms.

Overall, I would say that this movie will be entertaining to fans and non-fans of the original Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood TV show. It does have a bit of a slow start and the advertising of this movie is quite misleading. It is not a Fred Rogers biopic but that's not totally a bad thing. I would have to give this movie a 7.5 out of 10. With all of the action movies that are out right now it's nice to see a good inspirational movie that takes it's time to tell its story.