DVD Review: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
[DVD Beautiful]

If you remember the ads for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, when it was in the theaters, you may have been misled into thinking it was a biographical portrait of Fred Rogers, the amiable host of the children’s educational television show, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. It isn’t. In fact, “Mister Rogers” is a supporting character in this emotional story of reconciliation and forgiveness.

This story is based on the real-life experiences of author Tom Junod, who wrote an extended profile of Fred Rogers for a November 1998 Esquire Magazine article, “Can You Say…Hero?”. In this film, Junod has been changed to Lloyd Vogel, as portrayed by Matthew Rhys. Vogel is a hard-bitten, somewhat emotionally repressed man, known more for his journalistic articles that laid bare dark and dirty secrets on various topics. When his editor assigns him to do a small sidebar article on Fred Rogers for an Esquire issue dedicated to contemporary American heroes, Vogel thinks it’s a joke for a writer of his caliber. But he still heads to Philadelphia, and the studio where Rogers films his iconic television show. What he finds, in his first encounter/interview with Rogers (excellently portrayed by Tom Hanks), is a man of no artifice — the persona he shows to children, embracing their uniqueness and encouraging them to confront and embrace their complicated emotions — is the real man.

During the course of this film, Vogel’s encounters with Mister Rogers, who immediately adopts him as “my friend Lloyd Vogel”, help him to heal the critically damaged relationships he has with his father and his wife. The performances in this film, including both Hanks and Rhys, but also Chris Cooper as Vogel’s father, Susan Kelechi Watson as Vogel’s wife, Maryann Plunkett as Joanne Rogers, and Enrico Colantoni as Bill Isler, the real-life president of Roger’s production company, are all quite excellent.

My only complaint about this film is a few moments of surrealism as Lloyd has some hallucinatory dreams about Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Otherwise, this is a superb film. The DVD features numerous behind-the-scenes extras, that added much to my viewing experience. As someone who grew up on Mister Rogers and his oh-so-gentle embracing of the foibles of being a human being, I’ll admit I enjoyed the documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? a bit more than this film, but they are good companion volumes to each other.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Won’t You Be My Neighbor?] [Check out Tom Junod’s original Esquire profile article of Fred Rogers.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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