A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Last night I had the opportunity to see a Thursday preview of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and, as a big fan of Mr. Rogers, I knew I would enjoy it but I absolutely loved it!  Since I basically sobbed through the documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor?, I was prepared with tissues for this movie and I definitely needed them!  Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) is a journalist for Esquire magazine known for hard-hitting exposés designed to discredit his subjects.  He reluctantly takes an assignment to interview Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks) and his wife Andrea (Susan Kalechi Watson) warns him not to write anything negative about Mr. Rogers because it will ruin her childhood.  Whenever Vogel attempts a question, Rogers turns it back on him and gets him to reveal his concerns about being a new father and his inability to forgive his own father Jerry (Chris Cooper), who has recently made a reappearance in his life, for walking out on him and his dying mother.  Through his friendship, Rogers is able to get Vogel to change his perspective on life and become a more involved parent as well as reconcile with his father.  The story sounds very emotionally manipulative but it doesn't come across that way at all.  What I always loved about Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood is that he could always explain difficult and scary things in a way that a child could understand and he provided a way for children to express and deal with their feelings and that is exactly what he does for Vogel.  In fact, this movie uses the framing device of having Rogers tell Vogel's story as an episode of his show which is absolutely brilliant.  I love that all of the transitions between scenes involved the trolley moving through models of the locations.  Hanks gives an incredibly heartwarming performance as the beloved television star and, after a while, I forgot that I was watching Tom Hanks.  It is not so much an imitation as it is an embodiment of Fred Rogers.  Rhys also gives a powerful performance as a broken man in need of a little kindness.  I had one of the most profound viewing experiences of my life (which required all of my tissues) during an especially poignant scene.  Rogers asks Vogel to take a moment of silence to think about all of the people who loved him into being and you could literally hear a pin drop in my screening as everyone in the audience, including me, did as he asked.  When a tear falls from Vogel's eye I think everyone in the audience was crying, too!  I really loved this wonderful movie and I highly recommend it to everyone, but especially to those who grew up watching Mr. Rogers.