Mr. Movie: Hanks shines in ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’

The movie is based on an article by Tom Junod called “Can You Say…Hero?” He published it in Esquire Magazine in November of 1998. It’s a fascinating read packed with Rogersisms and great, short stories about the man. Some of them found their way into the movie, others did not.

More of them should have. In fact, director Marielle Heller (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?”) and her writers Micha Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster (“Malificent: Mistress of Evil”) should have turned the article into a movie instead of just borrowing stories of the man’s real life.

In other words, more Mr. Rogers, less of the made-up story of the reporter.

“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” turns Junod into a reporter named Lloyd Vogel. He’s played by Matthew Rhys who will soon be playing Perry Mason in a new TV series. Rhys also played Watergate tattletale Daniel Ellsberg in “The Post” and won a Golden Globe and got Primetime Emmy nominations for his work in TV’s “The Americans.”

Vogel has heavy issues with his father and can’t forgive him. Rogers picks up that Vogel is troubled and sets about to — in ways that only he could do — help the man learn to forgive. That means reaching back when dad — done by Chris Cooper — reaches out.

He is not even close to able to do that.

A couple of scenes in the film make it worth seeing. Both are from the article. The first — and such a beautiful scene — is people of all generations and all nationalities in a subway car singing Rogers theme song to him. The second has to do with how Rogers reaches Vogel by telling him that a big part of why he is who he is has to do with who — bad or not — his father is and how he was raised.

Two deeply profound scenes in a film full of cliche scenes.

And you don’t care that they’re cliche. What we all want to see is Hanks being Mr. Rogers, and we want to love him, and care and smile, and just be happy. Rogers whole goal in life was to reach people and help them be as fulfilled as possible and that seems to embody Hanks.

It’s what we know of him, and how he has conducted himself throughout his career. Like Rogers, we see Hanks as an accessible human being who genuinely cares about us and how we live our little lives.

He’s certainly accessible here. Hanks spent hours studying Rogers, his style of speech and his mannerisms. He nails the man. Close your eyes and it’s him. He’s no doubt going to be on everyone’s best list when nominations happen for best actor toward the end of the year.

But in this movie, Hanks is more of a supporting role. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

As for the film. I wanted more Mr. Rogers and less of the troubled reporter and his made up troubles and troubled family.

Last year’s documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” sat at the top of my movie favorite list. It was an amazing piece of work. In places it was so deep, and so touching that it brought tears to the eyes of many. It even came close to — no easy feat — bringing tears to the movie-hardened heart of mine.

It made me realize that in these troubled and confusing times, we need more people like Fred Rogers. That’s what I wanted from “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”

Plus, this is Tom Hanks and if anyone embodies the spirit and niceness of Fred Rogers it is Hanks. Knowing he was doing the role made me believe a smile would be planted on my face from the opening minute to the closing credits. The anticipated ear-to-ear grin didn’t materialize.

That’s not totally true. It did happen, just not enough.

▪ Rated PG for mature themes. It’s playing at the AMC Classic Kennewick 12, at the Fairchild Cinemas Pasco and Queensgate 12s and at the Fairchild Southgate 10 and at Walla Walla Grand Cinemas.

▪ Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5

This story was originally published November 21, 2019 at 7:39 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie: Hanks shines in ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’."