“Fame is a four-letter word, like ‘tape’ or ‘zoom.’”
There is a frustrating paradox at the center of Marielle Heller’s new film. It’s the type of risky feature that feels warmly conventional and at other times radical – just like the man himself. It features soft-spoken sequences that have the cacophonous effect of a foghorn, sincerely and smartly ushering in a wave of complexity about Mr. Rogers, his message, his role, and how it connects the world in a time of disconnect and conflict. But the film also is consistently a droll film at times, using its radical edge to tell a dull story of a man with daddy issues. The third feature directed by the supremely talented Marielle Heller, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, centers around Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), an investigative journalist for Esquire, who is assigned against his will to write a profile on the famous Mr. Rogers (Tom Hanks). Lloyd, based on the real Esquire writer Tom Junod, must come to terms with conflicting elements in his life – his estranged father, his wife, his new baby, and everything in between.
Father issues are an inevitable part of cinema – for better or for worse. Just look at the best film of the year, Ad Astra, a film that combines the story of a man searching for salvation in the cosmos with a battle of toxic masculinity connected with his father. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood instead has Matthew Rhys stage intermittent panic and anger attacks with conventional rejection. Rhys, a welsh actor most notable for one of the best performances of the decade in The Americans, isn’t utilized to in his fullest compared to the former (a show that astutely lets his soft-spoken directness clash with innate primal anger). Heller initially plays the story of this man with no real interest, turning an accomplished thespian like Rhys into just another character actor who gets overshadowed by a legend (both in character and in real life). That legend is Hanks, who is so satisfying in this film, perfectly capturing the soft-spoken soul of the man at the film’s center. Hanks doesn’t go for an impressionistic appearance but one that is born out of tempo and feel. It is… remarkable. And ultimately, that’s where the film’s greatest strength lies. Heller perfectly pinpoints who Rogers was and isn’t afraid to show the tight rope that Rogers constantly walked on. He wasn’t a saint. He was a fallible man who worked profoundly hard to procure and maintain his core philosophy and ultimately his central sincere image.
Despite all of this, it isn’t until the film’s final stretch that the stark simplicity of Lloyd’s story reveals itself to be satisfying. This is a story that is directed to perfection by a woman who sees the whole picture and doesn’t get in the way of the truth. It’s a straightforward story that hatches and grows into a complex organism, one that illuminates the constant daily struggles of empathy and forgiveness. It’s a shame the interest arrives late but underneath all of the wry simplicity is a smart, soulful film that gets half of the equation right, elevated by the ethereal presence of Rogers, acting as a ghostly narrator looking over the complexities of the world and giving it a guiding voice.
3.5/5 STARS
