If You’ll Only Bother to Look, You’ll Find It’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Review
From it’s saccharine sweet prologue to its dark and dirty family wedding beginning and finally to it’s stunning epilogue, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood explores the reluctant hero myth in pleasantly surprising ways. Loosely based upon Tom Junod’s essay on Fred Rogers for Esquire Magazine; Can You Say…Hero?, screenwriters Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster create the mythical Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) a journalist whose cynical world view has alienated most of the people he’s interviewed and then some. He has recently become a father and this is his call to adventure. Can our hero be the better father his own never was? Can Lloyd rise above his own cynicism and become the better man he knows he needs to be?
With Lloyd as our reluctant hero, Mr. Rogers tends to function as both the antagonist of this story, and Lloyd’s wise old man. Mr Roger’s antagonism to Lloyd’s protagonist lies in his profound faith that Lloyd will effectively answer his call to adventure and become the hero he fears he cannot be. As his wise old man he helps Lloyd get there. The prologue has Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers enters onto his set of his house in the neighborhood, casually singing his theme song and slowly taking off his shoes and replacing them with sneakers before pointing to the picture board beside him where he ultimately introduces us to Lloyd Vogler (Matthew Rhys) and informs his audience that this will be a lesson in forgiveness.
From this cutesy opening (a fitting prologue to a show that centers around Mr. Rogers) we’re invited to meet Lloyd Vogel who we first see accepting a journalism award and listen to a self congratulatory (even if somewhat cynical) speech from Lloyd. This lesson of forgiveness begins with Lloyd praising journalism for being an opportunity (even if only sometimes) to “change our broken world.” It’s not for nothing that as the cynical Lloyd pontificates on changing our broken world that the other journalists in the room go from nodding appreciatively to rigorous applause. Yet this film isn’t about the cynicism that pervades journalism today, it is about this particular cynic Lloyd.
Directed by Marielle Heller, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is almost the polar opposite of her last film, 2018’s Melissa McCarthy vehicle Can You Ever Forgive Me? The latter film is about a cynic too, but a cynic that is a charlatan and fraud. Certainly a talented writer at its heart, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, is too caught up in celebrating cynical charlatans and fraud. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, on the other hand celebrates kindness while focusing on a cynic who is no charlatan although he seems to feel like a fraud anyway.
Shortly after Lloyd accepts his award he is assigned by his editor an interview with Fred Rogers. Lloyd is flabbergasted at this assignment and doesn’t want to do it but we soon learn that he has so alienated himself among celebrities and famous people that few are willing to do an interview with him. This was the point of first meeting Lloyd accepting an award. He’s an award winning journalist but it has come with a heavy cost.. In between this moment we are treated to Lloyd and his wife attending his sisters wedding where he will soon discover his long absent father is there as well.
In the prologue when Mr. Rogers points to the picture board and reveals Lloyd, it is a mugshot looking photograph of Lloyd cut and bruised in the face. The use of this photo is a subtle hint to the viewer that all is not right and, of course Mr. Rogers lesson on forgiveness a not so subtle hint on what precisely is wrong with Lloyd. His sisters wedding is further evidence that there just might be more wrong with Lloyd than there is with his father (the always reliable Chris Cooper) who was apparently a world class dead beat dad. That meeting between father and son results in Lloyd violently attacking his father and this is where he wound up with that cut and bruised face we saw in the photo at the beginning.
Following that wedding he single-handedly destroyed for his sister and brother-in-law, making it all about Lloyd and his pain, he shows up to work in that bruised and cut face to face his editor who informs he will by flying to Pittsburgh to interview Mr. Rogers. Fitzerman-Blue and Harpster have done and wonderful job subtly weaving in visual images and crucial scenes of dialogue to firmly establish that Lloyd needs a change in his world view. Lying in bed with his wife Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson), he tells her he’ll be flying to Pittsburgh in the morning to interview Fred Rogers. She is surprised to hear this and tells him that Mr. Rogers is such a nice man.
Lloyd responds by saying “We’ll see.” Andrea looks up at him and pleads with him to not mess up her childhood memories. Not a charlatan, but this is Lloyd the cynical writer capable of seeing all that’s wrong with the world and with people about to, on his hero’s journey, meet his wise old man. A wise old man who is capable of seeing all that’s right the world and with people. It seems to go without saying that Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers is perfect and that he was (much as he was with so many other roles) born to play the part, but let it be said anyway.
As good as Hanks is, it is Matthew Rhys who truly shines. Hanks has always excelled at playing likable people, but it’s something else entirely to play unlikable people and invite the audience to like them. Of course, Rhys is aided by Hanks Mr. Rogers and the wisdom of writers Fitzerman-Blue and Harpster showing a Mr. Rogers that demonstrates profound faith in Lloyd, but Rhys is wryly charming allowing his moments of silence to reveal a man who is much more than a cynic. Rhys shows us a man who suppresses a wellspring of emotional pain and disappointment, but allows a slight glint in his eye to suggest that while he may be a skeptic he longs to be a true believer.
Rhys is no stranger to taking unlikable characters and making them likable. This has been a big part of his appeal in the AMC thriller The Americans and he damn near steals the show from Bradley Cooper in the under-cooked Burnt by playing just such a character. He is capable of showing a measure of compassion towards the people he glares at with such disdain and as Lloyd this is truly where Rhys shines. The fantastic chemistry between Hanks and Rhys makes A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood a very special kind of bromance and has every much to do with Rhys as it does with Hanks.
At one point in the many meetings that take place between Mr. Rogers and Lloyd the latter observes that Mr. Rogers likes to fix broken people clearly meaning himself. Mr. Rogers looks at him with astonishment and declares; “I do not think you are broken.” In another meeting Lloyd asks Mr. Rogers how he deals with all the burdens of life. Mr. Rogers explains there are techniques, disciplines like pounding clay, swimming vigorously or sitting at the piano and playing the lower keys ominously. He then mimics that sound; “Boom, boom, boom.” Lloyd asks him if he ever shares his burdens with anyone and Mr. Rogers smiles and again mimics playing the lower keys of the piano; “Boom.”
As the friendship develops between Lloyd and Mr. Rogers, Lloyd gradually learns to forgive his now dying father and in this catharsis learns how to be a better father and better man. What makes that so compelling is how Lloyd is able to get Mr. Rogers to admit he was not the perfect father and still struggles to be that man. It is an eye opening moment that ends with a sharp juxtaposition between Mr. Rogers for thanking Lloyd for bringing up this issue and offering his point of view. It was clearly not easy for Mr. Rogers to hear that point of view and Lloyd reacts with this typical cynical eye roll and derisive laughter.
There is a scene in which Mr. Rogers all alone is kneeling beside his bed in prayer asking God to keep safe and sound a number of people before finally arriving at Lloyd, his wife, his newborn child and his dying father. What an enourmous burden the Mr. Rogers seemingly takes on! Ultimately this is not Mr. Rogers tale this is the myth of Lloyd Vogler, our hero who is immeasurably flawed and seeks to be a good man, a hero. Lloyd may never obtain the saintly virtues of Mr. Rogers, but the gradual and slight change in world view that Lloyd takes on shows us a good man becoming better.
The epilogue is much like the prologue in that it is a Mr. Rogers episode being taped but ends with the scene being shot ending and Rogers reviewing that scene on the monitor afterward before signing off on it and dismissing cast and crew for the day. While everyone else leaves the set, Mr. Rogers sits down at the piano and begins playing a beautiful piece until he is alone. Once alone he pounds on the lower keys of the piano – Boom, boom, boom – before sliding back into the beautiful piece he was playing. This is that stunning end coming from a film that took great measures to celebrate kindness, forgiveness and holding a positive outlook. A brief reminder that even Mr. Rogers can get fed up with the world.