A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) Review

"Mr. Rogers knows my name."
-Andrea Vogel



Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) is an investigative reporter who is struggling with life as a new parent and his father's (Chris Cooper) attempts to reconnect with him.  Lloyd is unexpected assigned to write a profile on beloved television icon, Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks).  Lloyd has no idea his interviews with Mr. Rogers are going to change his life forever.


What Works:

Tom Hanks is wonderful as Mr. Rogers and I don't think anyone else could have played this role.  Hanks was born for this film and pulls it off magnificently.  He captures the spirit of what Mr. Rogers tried to do and I forgot I was watching Tom Hanks pretty quickly.

Matthew Rhys is also great in the film.  Unexpectedly, he's the main protagonist.  The movie is about how Mr. Rogers affected him, not about Mr. Rogers himself.  Rhys is more than up to the task and gives us a sympathetic and relatable character, even if he is unlikable at times.

This movie really captures the spirit of the TV show and opens just as the show did.  You can't help but grin as Tom Hanks says, "Hello, neighbor."  The cameras they use for these scenes are lower quality than the rest of the film, so it really feels like the show.

The movie also uses tons of miniatures, and not high-qualities ones, just as the show did.  They are completely charming and we get a lot of use out of them.  

My favorite sequence of the movie is a dream sequence that feels like it was directed by David Lynch and takes us to the Neighborhood of Make Believe.  It's utterly surreal and one of my parts of any movie this year.

Finally, the emotions in this film are palpable and I definitely felt my eyes welling up and multiple points throughout.  It's well written and well acted all around.


What Sucks:

I have only one complaint with the film and that comes in the form of Lloyd's wife, Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson).  This isn't the actress' fault, it's the character herself.  I find her very irritating.  She constantly takes the side of Lloyd's father, Jerry, over Lloyd.  That's not very supportive.  She doesn't seem to know the full story of what happened between Jerry and Lloyd, but clearly Lloyd isn't ready to speak to his father.  Allowing Jerry into their home without telling Lloyd isn't okay and the movie doesn't really do a good job of addressing that.  It's fine for a movie to have characters do irritating things, but it needs to address it and that's the one failure this movie has.


Verdict:

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is a wonderful film that captures the spirit of the show in every way.  Hanks and Rhys are fantastic and it's a very emotional story.  I don't love the character of Andrea, but this movie has still got it going on.

 9/10: Great 

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