ReviewA Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood film review: Tom Hanks plays Fred Rogers in touching biopic
- Tom Hanks plays a balanced role as Rogers, the long-time children’s TV host, considered one of the nicest people in TV
- The plot is fairly predictable and Hanks’ nuanced portrayal stops the film becoming maudlin
3.5/5 stars
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood will mean much more to American viewers familiar with children’s show presenter Fred Rogers, its much-loved subject. But the film, which features a carefully etched performance by Tom Hanks, is self-contained enough to appeal to foreign audiences who have never heard of Rogers.
Directed by Marielle Heller, who made the emotionally uncompromising Can You Ever Forgive Me? in 2018, it’s a well-tempered piece that avoids the pitfalls of a standard biopic. Heller develops an objective perspective of Rogers by focusing on a journalist sent to profile him, rather than the man himself.
Fred Rogers, who died in 2003 at the age of 73, hosted 895 half-hour episodes of his educational television show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood between 1968 and 2001. He helped children to understand serious events like death, divorce and war, and encouraged parents to remember their own childhoods. He was considered one of the nicest people in the entertainment business.
The film is loosely based on a true story. Misanthropic magazine journalist Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) loves his wife and his newborn baby, but a hatred of his father – who left his mother just before she died of a terminal disease – is threatening to derail their relationship.
Vogel writes in-depth articles on serious topics, and is disliked by interviewees because he tells it like it is. When Vogel’s editor sends him to interview Fred Rogers (Hanks) for a 400 word story, he feels that the assignment is an insult to his journalistic talents.