☆☆☆½
Into the messy, unhappy life of a harried middle-aged man struggling with wife and child comes a preternaturally insightful, wise person, appearing at just the right time to say just the right thing. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood presents American TV giant Mr. Rogers as a modern-day Mary Poppins, which is both the film's strength and great flaw.
Director Marielle Heller and screenwriters Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster are fully aware of last year's captivating documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? A traditional biopic route would doom this film to failure. So, it tries something different.
Mr. Rogers, played with exacting attention to detail in tone, rhythm and cadence by Tom Hanks, is a plot device here, the way Walt Disney was a plot device in Saving Mr. Banks. The movie isn't about him. Beautiful Day is about a fictional journalist named Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), a stereotypically frumpy, cynical journalist angry at being assigned to write about Mr. Rogers.
That's how the movie contrives the two of them to meet, and for the rest of the film, Mr. Rogers is the wise counsel who flits in and out of an unhappy and unconvincing story of Lloyd's family discord. Beautiful Day needs more Mr. Rogers, even if kept him at arm's length. The movie ends on a lovely, dark chord (literally), a final reminder of how much more satisfying this sweet, often delightful, film could be if it were actually about Mr. Rogers instead of, you know, someone else.
Viewed Oct. 12, 2019 -- AMC Century City
1900
Director Marielle Heller and screenwriters Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster are fully aware of last year's captivating documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? A traditional biopic route would doom this film to failure. So, it tries something different.
Mr. Rogers, played with exacting attention to detail in tone, rhythm and cadence by Tom Hanks, is a plot device here, the way Walt Disney was a plot device in Saving Mr. Banks. The movie isn't about him. Beautiful Day is about a fictional journalist named Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), a stereotypically frumpy, cynical journalist angry at being assigned to write about Mr. Rogers.
That's how the movie contrives the two of them to meet, and for the rest of the film, Mr. Rogers is the wise counsel who flits in and out of an unhappy and unconvincing story of Lloyd's family discord. Beautiful Day needs more Mr. Rogers, even if kept him at arm's length. The movie ends on a lovely, dark chord (literally), a final reminder of how much more satisfying this sweet, often delightful, film could be if it were actually about Mr. Rogers instead of, you know, someone else.
Viewed Oct. 12, 2019 -- AMC Century City
1900
nice blog.... i am satisfy with information and content. thanks for sharing.. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)
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