A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

 

Director: Marielle Heller
Starring: Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Cooper, Maryann Plunkett, Enrico Colantoni, Wendy Makkena, Tammy Blanchard, Noah Harpster, Chirstine Lahti
Running Time: 109 min.
Rating: PG

★★½ (out of ★★★★)

Continuing the push-back against more "traditional" biopics, Marielle Heller's well-made but empty A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is the latest to sneakily attempt to give audiences a glimpse into the soul of its subject by not making a movie about them. You know, because regular biopics are thought to be so flat and predictable. And of course, by not actually being about him, this is supposed to give us an even deeper look into who he is and what he represents, but through someone else. In the case of Fred Rogers, it's one of the many lives he changed. While he would seem to be on paper the ideal person for this kind of approach, the bigger question is why someone would go so far out of their way to actively avoid making a movie about the life of a hero to millions of adults and children around the world?

After passing away in 2003, Roger's legacy has only grown by the day, with justiable praise being showered on Morgan Neville's brilliant, tear-inducing 2018 documentary, Won't You Be My Neighbor? The interest in learning more about this man and what he stood for is undoubtedly there. But it's likely the studio worried a biopic would be a bore if they couldn't dig up any dirt on Fred Rogers, of which there is none. Or at least not nearly enough to make him an exciting protagonist in his own film. So they solved this imaginary problem by making the movie primarily about a mopey journalist and cast the most universally beloved actor as Mr. Rogers to get audiences into the theater. And it has to be one of the safest and laziest casting choices they could have made. But that celebrity worship represents the very anithesis of what Fred Rogers stood for and accomplished with his program, which would be fine if the selection of Hanks even made sense given story they're trying to tell.

The film isn't a complete failure, containing some ingenious sequences, a clever framing device, and a recreation of Mister Roger's Neighborhood that's an awe-inspiring achievement in production design as well as nostalgia. If only all of that was at the service of a story worthy of it. This was a man who touched our lives by doing seemingly small acts that amounted to far bigger than could have been imagined. For a film "about" him, it just feels too slight, unbefitting of the giant imprint he left on the world. While it may be rash to judge this for what it isn't, the importance and magnitude of its subject calls for more, especially when that person doesn't seem to be examined at all. He just deserves so much better.

It's 1998 and Esquire investigative journalist Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) has earned a well-deserved reputation for writing negative and cynical attack pieces for the magazine until his editor assigns him a 400-word profile on Mr. Rogers (Tom Hanks) for their series on heroes. Lloyd initially recoils at the idea, thinking it beneath him to do a story on a children's entertainer in lieu of the hard-jounalism he's built his name on. Unfortunately, his name isn't worth much anymore since word got out how difficult and miserable he is to be around.

Lloyd's also struggling in his personal life, getting into a fistfight with his drunk, estranged father, Jim (Chris Cooper) while attending his sister's wedding with wife Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson) and their newborn baby. His inability to forgive his dad for walking out on their dying mother when he was young haunts him to this day, part of that anger rooted in a fear he'll somehow repeat his father's mistakes.

Traveling to the WQED studio in Pittsburgh to interview Rogers and expose him as a fraud, he instead meets his match, a man who radiates empathy and kindness and is much more interested in Lloyd's life story than giving him the scandalous interview he came looking for. After his dodging questions and getting him to open up about his father, the frustrated reporter soon realizes Mr. Rogers' is unlike any anyone he's ever interviewed. And soon their conversations start to open him up in ways he couldn't have expected, forcing him to take a long, hard look at his childhood and the adult it shaped him into becoming.

The events in the film are inspired by journalist Tom Junod's 1998 Esquire article, "Can You Say...Hero?" and it's a great piece that you'd understand would be the go-to source in attempting to cut to the crux of what made Fred Rogers' life and career work so special without having to go the cradle-to-grave biopic route. And no one's suggesting they should have, as the concept of taking a relatively small, but important slice of a daunting subject's life can be a great jumping-off point provided the period or event justifies it. But the event covered here seems more like an afterthought for anyone other than the really insufferable Lloyd Vogel, and since the movie's plot revolves around him in every way, Rogers' is merely an intervening presence.

Rhys' performance is fine, if unengaging, but Lloyd's such a no-energy, downer with whiny stereotypical adult male problems that the scenario comes off as extremely low-stakes knowing how Rogers petitioned congress for public broadcast funding, talked to children about asssassinations and used his show to condemn racism. There were smaller victories as well, but this doesn't feel like one mainly because the lead character's so nondescript, too easily categorized as some guy with daddy issues. As Lloyd's wife, Susan Kelechi Watson is playing a smallish role that has echoes of her fiesty character on This is Us, which is actually a compliment since she gives the best performance in the film. But the plot feels like it could have been a leftover script from that series that never made it to air because it was too lightweight.

While this story doesn't feel like a microcosm of who Rogers was, nearly all the scenes that take place at the studio do, as we see him completely in his element, looking on in awe as Heller expertly depicts his rare gift being comfortable and accessible enough to be himself 24/7. There was no TV persona. Mr. Rogers was Mr. Rogers, on camera and off. Her treatment of the show itself, as well as its backstage elements, does Hanks many favors, as we're so taken by the painstaking recreation of the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (complete with the living room set, puppets, trolley and the Neighborhood of Make-Believe) it's easy to forget he's not quite right for the part.

The movie is bookended with a dramatization of the show itself, shot in this 80's style videotaped format and incorporating Lloyd into it, most memorably in a trippy fantasy sequence. In fact, the sight of a confused Lloyd, injured face and all, wandering into the actual show provides the film's biggest and most strangely tragic laugh. There's even this amazing mini doc about the printing of magazines that's presented in the show's signature style for those classic educational segments.

Nate Heller's score is understated perfection, with an equally impressive soundtrack featuring music from the likes of Nick Drake and Cat Stevens. It succeeds in getting so many of these key details right, while giving us a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse into the making of a public television series. An on-set visit during which Rogers makes a disabled boy feel like the most important person in the world with only a few words, and mostly by just listening, contains a certain magic that the rest of the picture could have used. If anything, it whets our appetites for a what a real Fred Rogers biopic could have been.

That aforementioned encounter is probably Hanks' finest moment, at least in terms of projecting how Rogers' always seemed to be looking outward, interested in everyone and everything. But most of the time, it's hard to get past the presence of Hanks playing him, trying to imitate Rogers without truly capturing his essence. There was hardly a minute where I thought it wasn't Tom Hanks trying to talk as slowly and softly as possible, dialing it way down. Rogers had a warmth to him, and while Hanks does as well, his entire demeanor is different enough that it never matches and you sense the actor trying to get there. And I'm not sure he ever does. A less identifiable performer should have been cast so we can discover him just as Lloyd simultaneously discovers Mr. Rogers, coming to realizations about him just as we do. That would have at least put the focus where it belongs.

Part of the problem just may be that we find it unfathomable today that anyone would doubt Rogers or consider him merely a "children's entertainer." Lloyd's take definitely hasn't aged well, so if the goal was to have an cynical, unlikable protagonist living in a time warp, this certainly accomplished that, regardless of the character's personal issues. The sad thing is that they had the most fascinating protagonist they could hope for and relegated him to a supporting player in what should be his own movie, miscasting the role on top of it. On the bright side, it doesn't overstay it's welcome and its 109 minutes feel more like 20, which could be a side effect of simply not having enough here. In a film that should be all about believing, it's disappointing that those involved didn't seem to believe enough in the impact of Mr. Rogers to tell a story truly celebrating what he left us. For now, we'll just have to rewatch the documentary for that.