"A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood"

We saw the long awaited "A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood" earlier this week, and we were not disappointed.  As no doubt everyone knows by now, the movie stars Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers, and Hanks is, as he usually is, terrific in the role.  What people may not realize is that this is not a biopic about Fred Rogers.  Nor is it, as my friend Maryellen has pointed out on a Facebook post, a movie to which you would bring your little children in hopes of  them becoming avid viewers of "Mister Rogers Neighborhood".   

It does, rather, tell a very specific story about about writer Tom Junod (identified as "Lloyd Vogel" in the movie, and wonderfully played by Matthew Rhys), who is assigned to interview Fred Rogers by Esquire Magazine for a piece on Heroes.  The hard-bitten and jaded writer, who is experiencing some familial relationship problems of his own, falls under the spell of Rogers' universal lessons of kindness and the unique person-ness (a world that I just made up) that resides in each and everyone of us.  In seeing the effect that Fred Rodgers has had on this one specific person, we also see how he as affected every single person with whom he came in contact, either in person or through "Mister Rogers Neighborhood".  

In a country and a world where kindness seems to be in short, very short, supply, "A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood" gives us a  lesson on what it is to be kind.  That alone makes seeing this movie important and worth seeing.

Director Marielle Heller has made a movie that will no doubt garner multiple Oscar nominations.  She made a decision to shrink the screen to a 4-by-3 aspect ratio whenever the movie depicts the Rogers television show, which is really cool, and the use of miniatures to depict not only Mister Rogers Neighborhood, but the cities of Pittsburgh and New York, are wonderfully whimsical.  This should get Oscar noms for both Heller and for the production designers.  Rhys and Hanks should pull down nominations as well, although Hanks' nomination might very well come in the Supporting Actor category.

This movie gets Three and one-half Stars from The Grandstander.

One comment about Tom Hanks, and it is not an original thought from me.  Have you noticed how Hanks seems to now be portraying only real people in his films these days?  Fred Rogers, Ben Bradlee, Sully Sullenberger, the guy who  negotiated for the spies in "Bridge of Spies"?  Not sure what this means, but it just seems interesting.  Whatever the role, Tom Hanks is no doubt the Actor of Our Times, much like James Stewart and Spencer Tracy were in another time.