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“Though of all races, the schoolchildren were mostly black and Latino, and they didn't even approach Mister Rogers and ask him for his autograph. They just sang.”

If you’ve seen an ad or trailer for Marielle Heller ’s “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” perhaps you noticed the scene above. At first, even I thought this snippet of the movie was trying too hard to push my nostalgia buttons, but then I found these words in Tom Junod’s exemplary profile of Mr. Rogers, "Can You Say ... Hero?" It’s the same profile that gives “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” its premise, but with a noticeable departure: Mr. Rogers isn’t the main character of the movie.

Set up much like a Mr. Rogers episode—complete with the show’s twinkling piano theme music, miniature sets and the star (played by Tom Hanks ) arriving home, singing, changing his sweater and shoes—the movie instead follows Lloyd ( Matthew Rhys ), a cynical journalist assigned to write an inoffensive puff piece on the popular kid’s TV show host for Esquire . He rolls his eyes at the too-easy job and begrudgingly meets the sweatered legend, someone so venerable, even his wife Andrea ( Susan Kelechi Watson ) asks him not to "ruin her childhood" with a hard-hitting article. But even his dyed-in-the-wool cynicism is no match for Fred Rogers , whose kindness and never-ending prodding questions get Lloyd to talk more about himself, his new foray into fatherhood, his strained relationship with his father Jerry ( Chris Cooper ) and how it continues to affect him after all these years.

"A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" isn't so much a biopic as it is a way to look at the way Mr. Rogers affected generations of children, young and grown. If his character seems too simple, it's likely because that's how many people saw him, uncomplicated and confined to his on-screen persona. If his presence seems too good to be true—and trust me, it does many times throughout the film—sometimes, often the scene can be traced back to the article or an old episode. Others, of course, are very much made up by screenwriters Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster . And yet, these fabricated scenes don’t feel so detached from the recreated stories. There seem to be few limits to Mr. Roger’s kindness.

The movie’s most delightful scenes usually revolve around Lloyd’s skepticism of that unending kindness. Rhys plays the part of a man hurt by his past well, his character has closed off certain emotions in order to survive, but that just won’t do when interviewing Mr. Rogers. Heller's film gives him an emotional journey shaped by Mr. Rogers’ philosophy, with his profile subject doubling as a therapist. It’s a storytelling device that sometimes prioritizes his character development over their shared interactions, but it also answers the question of what can adults learn from watching Mr. Rogers.

While not exactly the spitting image of Mr. Rogers, Hanks convincingly imitates the mannerisms of the former minister-turned-childhood staple. He slows his speech to get Rogers’ soothing cadence, gives hugs and holds hands almost too freely, and walks with a vulnerability that reminds us that he’s not just playing a character on a TV show but a person with his own fears and pain. It’s a dream match of two well-known and well-liked personas, one kind actor portraying one of the kindest humans ever to work in entertainment. Hanks’ energy in the role wonderfully gets at what “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” wants to convey.

Following on the heels of two darker edged dramedies, “ Can You Ever Forgive Me? ” and “ The Diary of a Teenage Girl ,” Heller’s instinct to follow a flawed character—which compared to Rogers, could probably be any one of us—is right on. Along with cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes , Heller balances the well-lit sets of the PBS affiliate where Rogers tapes his shows and the dark rooms where Lloyd does much of his research watching old episodes or reflects on the advice Rogers gives him about his dad. He’s isolated and gloomy in these scenes, but when he’s sitting across from Rogers, it’s almost as if the light from the host reflects back on the journalist, quite literally lighting his existence. Heller and her team’s devotion to incorporating references to his show and its new incarnation based on one of his favorite puppets, “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” extends throughout the film, like in interstitial scenes of miniature sets of New York and Pittsburgh showing Lloyd traveling between the two cities or Nate Heller ’s score which feels to be in conversation with the notes of the show’s theme song. It ties back to the book-end-like set-up of the movie where Hanks as Mr. Rogers speaks directly to the audience and introduces us to his friend, Lloyd, which so quickly reminds of the show millions of us once watched and taps right into those feelings.

As with Morgan Neville's documentary " Won't You Be My Neighbor? ", the tears may flow freely due to nostalgia or from some subjects hitting too close to home, but “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” fits as a companion piece. Where the documentary offers a more complex view of the man in the red sweater and tennis shoes, Heller’s movie is more about the cultural impression Rogers left behind—his almost supernatural ability to calmly connect with so many and de-stigmatize the way we express or discuss emotion. It was a treat to visit Junod’s article after watching the movie just to dispel my own cynical reading, and find out just how much of Rogers’ scenes were quite true-to-life, including one of my favorite upbeat responses from Rogers to Lloyd’s incredulous expression: "Look at us—I've just met you, but I'm investing in who you are and who you will be, and I can't help it." There’s not been an era in the world where it wasn’t nasty, scary or mean, but for a time, so many of us were lucky enough to learn that it didn’t have to be that way. That’s the lasting power of Mr. Rogers.

Monica Castillo

Monica Castillo is a critic, journalist, programmer, and curator based in New York City. She is the Senior Film Programmer at the Jacob Burns Film Center and a contributor to RogerEbert.com .

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A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood movie poster

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)

107 minutes

Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers

Matthew Rhys as Lloyd Vogel

Chris Cooper as Jerry Vogel

Susan Kelechi Watson as Andrea Vogel

Enrico Colantoni as Bill Isler

Maryann Plunkett as Joanne Rogers

Tammy Blanchard as Lorraine

Marielle Heller
Noah Harpster
Micah Fitzerman-Blue

Director of Photography

Jody Lee Lipes
Anne McCabe

Original Music Composer

Nate Heller

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A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Reviews

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood might be one of the most profound films about father-son relationships ever made.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.9/10 | Nov 2, 2023

Beautiful Day is shockingly insistent on the importance of forced reconciliation at all costs, which I find offensive...

Full Review | Dec 5, 2022

Tom Hanks is the perfect choice for this (role), someone we all associate with the same warmth and affection as Rogers. A very uplifting film, that gives you a bit of faith in just how good people can be.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 15, 2022

I had a harder time warming up to A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood than my frozen holiday turkey. It’s an odd piece that’s laudable, but humdrum.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 22, 2022

(Heller) has so many interesting touches (I absolutely love how she uses miniatures) and approaches the story with just the right sensibility. And in the end it’s kindness, hope, and compassion that wins the day.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 19, 2022

What a joy it is that we have this beautiful, playful, magical film

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | May 13, 2022

The world could use a billion Fred Rogers, or a million in positions of power. Tom Hanks gives an incredible performance in this brilliantly directed film about love, compassion and hope. Full review in Spanish

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Apr 7, 2022

As Rogers, Hanks does something exceptional in his career: he disappears.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 23, 2022

The power of the story is such that we believe that Tom Hanks is in his daily life in the roles he represents. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Jan 20, 2022

It's told with so much humor and heart.

Full Review | Sep 16, 2021

If you're expecting a straightforward biography of Mister Rogers, you might be disappointed...if, however, you hope to be inspired by a story about the way Mister Rogers still affects the world today, you will love this film.

Full Review | Aug 12, 2021

It's an airtight little fable of fingers linked in a gesture of friendship, one to one to one and on and on and on forever. Start small, with whomever is standing in front of you, and work from there.

Full Review | Jul 2, 2021

It's a typically reliable turn from the two-time Oscar winner and he carries the movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 14, 2021

Make sure you've got your tissues, then dig out the companion documentary Won't You Be My Neighbour? and the 1998 article that inspired it all. You can thank me later.

Full Review | Apr 13, 2021

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood pays tribute to Fred Rogers in an understated and heartfelt way that he would surely appreciate.

Full Review | Feb 17, 2021

A quietly moving retort to modern cynicism.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 16, 2021

The movie is quite a bit riskier than you might expect from a biopic about Mr. Rogers.

Full Review | Jan 28, 2021

Viewers will surely never get lost in the performance; it's always obvious that Hanks is playing a part (though he's thoroughly watchable in every scene).

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Dec 7, 2020

"It has been crafted into something unique between being moving and heartbreaking"

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 27, 2020

Without a doubt [Tom Hanks] was the best candidate to play Rogers in this pleasant but predictable film about kindness. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Oct 8, 2020

Cast & crew
User reviews

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Based on the true story of a real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Lloyd Vogel. Based on the true story of a real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Lloyd Vogel. Based on the true story of a real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Lloyd Vogel.

Marielle Heller
Micah Fitzerman-Blue
Noah Harpster
Matthew Rhys
Chris Cooper
724 User reviews
290 Critic reviews
80 Metascore
10 wins & 64 nominations total

Top cast 99+

Lloyd Vogel

Fred Rogers

Jerry Vogel

Andrea Vogel

Joanne Rogers

Lady Aberlin

Mr. McFeely
Sound Technician

Young Boy's Dad
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

Trivia Fred Rogers was known to be extremely difficult to interview because he cared more about the person interviewing him than he did about being interviewed and would often use the time to befriend the person interviewing him.
Goofs As is usual for a biodrama, certain events are changed for dramatic purposes. The beginning of the film states this takes place in 1998, however, several of the Mister Rogers episodes depicted being recorded were actually filmed earlier. The episode where Rogers attempted to put up a tent was filmed in 1975, and his visit to the Uptown String Quartet was filmed and aired in 1997, and the Neighborhood of Make-Believe story involving the skunk was filmed and aired in 1987.

Fred Rogers : Anything mentionable is manageable.

Crazy credits When the credits roll, behind the scenes footage of the models during the transitions. This culminates with footage of the real Fred Rogers singing "You've Got to Do It".
Connections Featured in AniMat's Crazy Cartoon Cast: Saving Mr. Rogers (2019)
Soundtracks Won't You Be My Neighbor? Written by Fred Rogers Produced by Ron Fair and Nate Heller

User reviews 724

CriticalOfEverything
Jan 31, 2020
How long is A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood? Powered by Alexa
Where did Mister Rogers live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania?
Why is there a credit at the end of the credits for Zapruder Film/Texas Depository?
Why is Tom Hanks listed as a supporting actor for the Oscars?
November 22, 2019 (United States)
United States
Big Beach Films (United States)
Official Facebook
You Are My Friend
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA (Fred Rogers WQED Studio)
TriStar Pictures
Tencent Pictures
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$25,000,000 (estimated)
$61,704,055
$13,251,238
Nov 24, 2019
$67,925,733

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 49 minutes
Dolby Digital
12-Track Digital Sound
Dolby Atmos
Dolby Surround 7.1

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A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Review

Tom hanks makes for the perfect mister rogers in this witty, emotional film., best reviewed movies of 2019.

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Tom Hanks in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is not what you expect from a Mister Rogers story. There’s been a hunger to uncover more about the sweatered man – the critical and box office success of 2018’s Won’t You Be My Neighbor proves that. But where Won’t You Be My Neighbor breaks down the principles of Rogers, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood showcases the effects of those principles on one man. Personable, emotional, and packed with humor, this film – and the spirit of Rogers – holds on to your heart and refuses to let go.

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Film Review: ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’

Tom Hanks channels Mister Rogers in a drama about how the legendary children's TV host saves a magazine writer, and maybe the rest of us.

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Tom Hanks stars as Mister Rogers in TriStar Pictures' A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. Photo by: Lacey Terrell

Here’s a confession: Although Tom Hanks is one of my favorite actors, and I got caught up in the skewed homespun mystique of Mister Rogers thanks to last year’s sublime documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” when it was announced that Hanks would play the cardigan-sweatered children’s TV legend in a new dramatic feature, I wondered, frankly, if the casting was right. Hanks has always been at home playing fast-break wise guys; even when he inhabits a character as innocent as Forrest Gump, there’s an alpha directness to him. I wondered if Hanks would be gentle enough to play Fred Rogers.

But as Mister Rogers himself might have asked: Why did I ever doubt that Tom Hanks could be my neighbor?

In “ A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood ,” Hanks isn’t just good — he’s transporting. He takes on Mister Rogers’ legendary mannerisms and owns them, using them as a conduit to Rogers’ disarming inner spirit. He makes you believe in this too-nice-for-words man who is all about believing. “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” is a soft-hearted fable that works on you in an enchanting way. When the film comes out (at Thanksgiving), there won’t be a dry eye in the megaplexes of America.

Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Gala Presentations), Sept. 7, 2019. Running time: 107 MIN.

Production: A Sony Pictures Releasing release of a TriStar Pictures production. Producers: Youree Henley, Peter Saraf, Marc Turtletaub, Leah Holzer. Executive producers: Bergen Swanson, Noah Harpster, Micah Fitzerman-Blue, Edward Cheng, Howard Chen.
Crew: Director: Marielle Heller. Screenplay: Noah Harpster, Micah Fitzerman-Blue. Camera (color, widescreen): Jody Lee Lipes. Editor: Anne McCabe. Music: Nate Heller.
With: Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Cooper, Enrico Colantoni, Maryann Plunkett, Tammy Blanchard, Wendy Makkena, Sakina Jaffrey, Carmen Cusack.

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‘a beautiful day in the neighborhood’: film review | tiff 2019.

THR review: Tom Hanks plays Fred Rogers and Matthew Rhys portrays the journalist assigned to profile him in Marielle Heller's biographical film 'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.'

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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Fred Rogers, who died in 2003, is simply the gift that keeps on giving. He was the subject of one of the most unlikely box office phenomena of recent times when a documentary about him, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, became a theatrical smash with a $22 million gross in 2018, and now he provides Tom Hanks with another trademark role in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood .

There’s no question that Hanks is perfect in the part, as the actor’s amiability and unquestionable sincerity make for an ideal match with the unique television personality. Marielle Heller ‘s film itself, however, is a rather more modest achievement, sympathetic and yet entirely predictable in its dramatic trajectory of making a believer of an angry, cynical journalist. Still, the lure of the Hanks/Rogers matchup looks to stir some reasonable commercial returns.

Release date: Nov 22, 2019

As everyone who had ever watched him knew, and as many others discovered to their surprise via the documentary, Rogers was the real thing, a genuine optimist who had a lot more to offer than simple homilies or can-do encouragement. He may have been an odd bird and seemed as folksy as the most extreme Jimmy Stewart character, but there were no life challenges that he would not confront.

The script by the team of Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster ( Maleficent: Mistress of Evil , coming next month) serves up very little that you can’t guess after the first few minutes. Sullen Esquire writer Lloyd Vogel ( The Americans ‘ Matthew Rhys , who also played Daniel Ellsberg in The Post ) can’t believe he’s being asked to go Pittsburgh to interview the TV phenomenon. Lloyd’s grumpiness is exacerbated by his wife’s demands after the arrival of their baby and, boy, he looks like hell with his grungy little beard. But when he learns he only needs to write a 400-word piece, he grudgingly agrees.

It only takes a couple of minutes of watching Hanks go through the Rogers rituals on the familiar set of his show to know that you’re in good hands — that the actor will entirely deliver the Rogers persona physically, vocally and in attitude. In fact, it’s easy to imagine that many people will relax into the movie so much that they’ll forget they’re watching an impersonation. The slow, easy, invariably honest and never condescending words that come out of his mouth, and the way Hanks invites you into Rogers’ odd but convincing world, provide the film’s greatest pleasures. The actor persuades you to drop your guard and let the man’s unique, if nonetheless a bit bizarre, means of communication take you by the hand and lead you to hitherto unexpected emotional and attitudinal places.

For a good while, however, Lloyd remains a doubting Thomas as well as a deeply troubled character. He’s severely on the outs with his father Jerry (Chris Cooper), a roughhousing alcoholic and all-around S.O.B., and it becomes all too clear very early on that the goodness Lloyd will absorb from Rogers over time will lead to a reconciliation between the recalcitrant father and son.

Through the film’s second half, there are pleasures that remain in further exposure to Rogers, and the brief time we get to see his wife make you wish there was more of her here (his two sons are seen not at all). But you want to press the fast-forward button well before everything gets tidied up with Lloyd and his relations, as there’s nothing surprising or even interesting lurking in the final act, so rote are the proceedings.

Given that the journalist Vogel is based upon, Tom Junod, ultimately wound up writing a 4,000-word piece about Rogers that Esquire printed in full and won some big awards, one wishes the film had gotten around to looking at some of the other things they talked about, however briefly, just to expand its focus somewhat. The feel-good togetherness of the journo’s family at the end feels undeserved.

It’s ultimately pretty much Hanks’ show, and Hanks’ show alone. One has long since taken the actor’s gifts for granted and as soon as this film was announced, it was nearly a given that he would be perfect in the role. Well, he is, but it would have been great to see him in a few more varied situations.

After her fantastic first two features, The Diary of a Teenage Girl and Can You Ever Forgive Me?, it’s a bit disappointing to see Heller taking on material with no edge at all. But the prospect of working with Hanks was understandably too great an opportunity to pass up, and she’s done a perfectly reasonable job under the circumstances. Visually, however, the film could have been sharper, with more color and luster.

Production companies: Big Beach Films, Tencent Pictures, TriStar Pictures Distributor: Sony Cast: Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys, Lloyd Vogel, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Cooper, Enrico Colantoni, Carmen Cusack, Noah Harpster, Maddie Corman Director: Marielle Heller Screenwriters: Micah Fitzerman-Blue, Noah Harpster Producers: Youree Henly, Peter Saraf, Marc Turtletaub, Leah Holzer Executive producers: Bergen Swanson, Noah Harpster, Micah Fitzerman-Blue, Edward Cheng, Howard Chan Director of photography: Jody Lee Lipes Production designer: Jade Healy Costume designer: Arjun Bhasin Editor: Anne McCabe Music: Nate Heller Casting: Avy Kaufman Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Gala)

Rated PG, 109 minutes

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‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’ Review: A Movie as Open-Hearted as Mister Rogers

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

For fans of the late Fred Rogers — though if you’re a fan, you can really only call him Mister Rogers — A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood seems like a setup for a letdown. See, it’s not really Fred’s movie. Yes, Tom Hanks is there to play the gentle, soft-spoken host of the children’s show classic Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1968 to 2001), and he inhabits the role with all the friendly persuasion an actor could muster. But you’ll learn more about this saintly enigma, who died of stomach cancer in 2003 at 74, from Morgan Neville’s Won’t You Be My Neighbor , the 2018 documentary that grossed a hefty $22 million and still failed to win an Oscar.

Working from a screenplay by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster ( Maleficent: Mistress of Evil ), the gifted director Marielle Heller ( The Diary of a Teenage Girl ; Can You Ever Forgive Me? ) puts her focus on Lloyd Vogel ( Matthew Rhys ), a disgruntled journalist. How disgruntled? Lloyd actually balks when Esquire assigns him to interview the TV pied piper he dismisses as “a hokey kid-show guy.” Since Lloyd is loosely based on acclaimed writer Tom Junod, who won awards for his reporting on a rapist and an abortion doctor, you can understand his resistance to doing a deep dive into marshmallow.

No matter. Junod’s definitve Mister Rogers profile, “Can You Say . . . Hero?” was published in Esquire in 1998, the year that A Beautiful Day takes place. Like Junod, Lloyd accepts the Rogers assignment thinking he just might penetrate the Rogers bubble of bland. He’s not planning a hatchet job exactly, but it might be a kick to uncover a few flaws in this avatar of benevolent virtue, who was also a Presbyterian minister.

Instead, Lloyd uncovers his own feet of clay. Despite a loving, supportive wife in Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson, of This Is Us ) and an infant son, the workaholic Lloyd has major daddy issues. His father, Jerry (Chris Cooper), is so boorish, needling, and neglectful (he basically disappeared when Lloyd’s mother contracted cancer) that Lloyd starts a fistfight with the old man at a family wedding. Cheers to the talented Rhys, the Welsh actor who won a well-deserved Emmy for playing an undercover Russian spy in The Americans, for bringing nuance and implosive intensity to a role that could have easily slid into cliché.

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Lloyd shows up bruised in Pittsburgh, where Mister Rogers lives and tapes his TV show, and instantly recognizes that this hardass journalist from the Big Apple needs some TLC. And that’s the movie — the slow wearing down of a reporter’s cynicism through the inherent decency of, yes, a hokey kid-show guy. You can see the reconciliation coming between Lloyd and his dad from outer space. But what you can’t see, until you let this movie in, is how Hanks and Heller are purveyors of a delicate magic that is damn near irresistible. In the opening scene, Hanks steps onto the re-created, pasteboard set of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and begins the ritual. He takes off his street clothes and replaces them with the sneakers and red cardigan sweater that ooze disarming coziness as he sings the title song: “I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you/I’ve always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.”

The entrance and the song are a huge risk. It’s naive to think that because Hanks and Rogers are both nice guys, there’s no acting required. But Hanks, who captures the man’s precise diction and soothing intonation, quickly moves past imitation to find the nurturing soul that Mister Rogers opens to the world; not just to children, but to skeptics like Lloyd. And also, perhaps, to an audience of nonbelievers. Hanks succeeds triumphantly, gently interrogating Lloyd about his writing, his family, and the anger festering inside him. The scenes between Hanks and Rhys are a duet of withholding that find meaning in the space between words.

Fred is far more successful than Lloyd is at getting answers. The reporter watches Fred at work. He briefly spends time with Fred’s wife, Joanne (a wonderful Maryann Plunkett), and listens to them on the piano. The couple’s two sons are mentioned but nowhere in sight as Fred talks about the challenges of parenthood. And nothing about Fred’s manner changes from what he projects before the camera. What you see is what you get. Even when Fred asks for retakes of a sequence, his tone is firm, never flinty. Too good to be true? Not really. There’s a final shot that I won’t spoil. But in finding Fred alone at the piano, the moment catches a hint of darkness roiling under Fred’s placid surface. You leave this movie with questions about this odd-duck of a humanist, who eased children through the thorny feelings that come with fear, bullying, divorce, and trauma. You also leave grateful for how Hanks and Heller respect the privacy and complexity of a man who knew life was never as simple as it looks. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is a movie that speaks from the heart. Let it in.

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DVD & Streaming

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Content caution.

In Theaters

November 22, 2019
Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers: Matthew Rhys as Lloyd Vogel; Susan Kelechi Watson as Andrea Vogel; Chris Cooper as Jerry Vogel; Maryann Plunkett as Joanne Rogers; Tammy Blanchard as Lorraine; Noah Harpster as Todd; Wendy Makkena as Dorothy

Home Release Date

February 18, 2020
Marielle Heller

Distributor

Movie review.

Every day, he walked through that door, put on his sweater and told us it was a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Every day.

Did he lie?

On television, his neighborhood did look beautiful. The sky was always blue. The porch swing always looked welcoming. The shoes were always where they should be and the trolley was never late.

But Mister Rogers didn’t live in our neighborhood. He didn’t live in Lloyd Vogel’s.

As a journalist for Esquire magazine, Lloyd has seen his share of ugly days in ugly neighborhoods. He’s been through third-world shantytowns and blighted apartments. But some of the ugliest neighborhoods masquerade as the prettiest. Manicured suburbs hide dark secrets. Gated communities lock monsters inside. Beautiful? That’s a laugh.

Lloyd doesn’t do beautiful anymore. Not for a long time, Maybe not since his father ran out on him. He doesn’t write about the true or the noble or the right or the pure, because in his experience there’s always something worse underneath. The real world doesn’t do noble, and nothing is pure for long. Such things belong in make-believe realms filled with cardboard castles and talking tigers.

But then Esquire , for a special edition on “ heroes ,” asks Lloyd to write a profile piece on Fred “Mister Rogers” Rogers. The editor isn’t looking for a cynical unpacking or a scathing expose, like Lloyd’s used to writing; just 400 words that give a wee bit of insight to the man behind that (in Lloyd’s words) “hokey kids’ show.”

Mister Rogers, a hero? “A guy who plays with puppets for a living?” Lloyd sneers. How does that qualify? And why does Lloyd have to interview him?

Because everyone else on the list refused to sit down and talk with the journalist, that’s why.

When Lloyd tells his wife about his newest assignment, she’s happy for him. Andrea remembers watching Mister Rogers as a kid. He was so kind, so gentle. He made her feel safe. Loved.

“At least it’s someone good,” she tells Lloyd.

“Yeah,” Lloyd says. “We’ll see.”

Positive Elements

Lloyd does indeed see. From their first hurried conversation over the phone, the journalist notices that there’s something different about Fred Rogers, a knife of gentle determination that can cut through even the most cynical cloth.

First, it’s Fred on the phone: Not his assistant, not his handler, not his lawyer. Mister Rogers himself . And when Lloyd suggests they set another time to talk because he knows (he says) that Fred has more important things to do right then, Fred disagrees: He’s on the phone with Lloyd right now. And that makes Lloyd, in that moment, the most important thing in Fred’s life.

That’s just the beginning. Again and again, Lloyd is struck by Fred Rogers’ knack for being present . His every word and every interaction is pregnant with a powerful sense of intentionality . When Fred’s listening to you, he’s not also thinking about his grocery list or his next appointment or anything else. It’s just him and you. That’s it.

True, that character trait tends to drive Fred’s inner circle a little crazy: When he spends too much time with a young guest on set, Fred’s longtime producer Margy sighs that he’s “ruining my life.” But for Mister Rogers, people aren’t things to be squeezed into the day’s calendar: They’re to be treated as the precious, sacred treasures they are.

At first, Lloyd—ever the cynic—can’t quite believe it. But the more time he spends with Fred, the more realizes that what you see is what you get, that there’s no dichotomy between Mister Rogers on TV and Fred Rogers in real life. In fact, when Lloyd tries to suggest that Mister Rogers is some kind of character construct, Fred can’t even comprehend the distinction Lloyd is suggesting.

Fred’s integrity and intentionality lend more authority to the lessons he tries to teach, and he teaches them by the trunkful here. The centerpiece lesson he tries to help Lloyd learn is the importance of forgiveness—an incredibly difficult thing to do, especially for Lloyd, who has so much to forgive.

But every moment Fred’s onscreen becomes a teachable one. When he struggles to set up a tent for the show, he suggests keeping it intact: He wants to teach children that “even when adults make plans they don’t [always] turn out the way they hoped.” He talks about time and love and fear and frustration, and his own frustration that we tend to appreciate a child “for what he will be, not what he is.”

Mister Rogers may be gentle, but he’s no coward. Lloyd sees that the supposedly milquetoast television personality has dealt with issues that few others would touch: war, racism, divorce, death. These are serious things, and Fred treats them very seriously. But he wraps these issues in blankets of kindness, reassuring his young fans that each of them is special. They are loved. They have value. He offers the same lessons to the adults in his life, too, including Lloyd—an embittered journalist who desperately needs to hear it.

“He likes everybody,” someone says of Fred to Lloyd. “But he loves people like you.” Broken people. Hurting people. Turns out, Fred didn’t just agree to sit down with Lloyd: He asked to. Like some sort of sweatered saint, Fred Rogers facilitates a near-miraculous work of healing in Lloyd’s life and in the life of his family.

Spiritual Elements

The real Fred Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister who believed that (according to the excellent documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor ) his children’s show was a pulpit of sorts, from which he preached Jesus’ message of unconditional love and boundless mercy (albeit without mentioning Jesus’ name). This movie retains not just that message, but hints at the quiet faith that lay beneath it.

We see Fred pray, sometimes to Lloyd’s discomfort. His Bible makes an appearance or two. And when he talks to a dying man, he asks for the man to pray for him. When Lloyd says that was a kind thing for Fred to do—knowing that this little act of faith would make the dying man feel a sense of purpose—Fred looks at him aghast: Anyone who’s going through what that dying fellow is going through must be especially close to God, Fred says.

Sexual Content

We see Lloyd in bed with his wife (they’re in their pajamas and talking). Lloyd’s father, Jerry, has a new woman in his life that he wants Lloyd to get to know. There’s some discussion of Jerry’s past philandering.

Violent Content

Lloyd and Jerry get into a physical altercation at Lloyd’s sister’s wedding, with both suffering some cuts and bruises after the scuffle. Someone collapses from a medical condition. Lloyd also collapses, apparently from overwork and not enough sleep . A kid swings around a toy sword, hitting his own dad in the shin. We hear about how Lloyd cared for his dying mother, and how much pain the woman was in.

Crude or Profane Language

Characters say “d–n,” “h—” and “crap.” God’s name is misused three times, while Jesus’ name is abused once.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Jerry drinks heavily, and he gets drunk at his daughter’s wedding (leading to that fight with his son). He drinks elsewhere, too, including in a hospital bed, against doctor’s orders. Lloyd pours him out a glass of bourbon and serves himself one, too.

Other Negative Elements

Lloyd’s relationship with Jerry is perhaps the movie’s central point of tension. We see and feel the bad blood between the father and son—blood so bad that Lloyd can barely stomach talking with the guy for much of the movie. [ Spoiler Warning ] Eventually, we learn the primary reason for the father-son split: Jerry ran out on his wife when she got sick, forcing Lloyd and his sister to care for her all by themselves.

It’s not always beautiful in our neighborhoods. Mister Rogers never thought it was.

“There is no normal life that is free from pain,” he tells Lloyd. Even Mister Rogers has suffered. Even he grieves. Even he—Mister Rogers, the kindest, gentlest person to ever grace a television show—gets angry. He talks to Lloyd about how sometimes he feels like mashing all the low keys on his piano down—hard. “BOMMMMM!” He growls for effect. All of those emotions are real and important. We all can be sad or scared or angry. These emotions, in themselves, are not wrong .

It’s what we do with them—or what we undo because of them—that matters.

In the movie, Fred’s wife, Joanne, tells Lloyd that Fred isn’t who he is by accident. He works at it. Fred’s intentionality, his kindness, his goodness are products of not just who Fred is, but of who he wants to be—who he thinks he needs to be for the children who watch and trust him.

A vignette—not in this movie, but in the original Esquire article that inspired the film—illustrates this constancy. In the article, “Can You Say … Hero?,” Tom Junod writes:

“Mister Rogers weighed 143 pounds because he has weighed 143 pounds as long as he has been Mister Rogers, because once upon a time, around thirty-one years ago, Mister Rogers stepped on a scale, and the scale told him that Mister Rogers weighs 143 pounds. No, not that he weighed 143 pounds, but that he weighs 143 pounds. … And so, every day, Mister Rogers refuses to do anything that would make his weight change—he neither drinks, nor smokes, nor eats flesh of any kind, nor goes to bed late at night, nor sleeps late in the morning, nor even watches television—and every morning, when he swims, he steps on a scale in his bathing suit and his bathing cap and his goggles, and the scale tells him that he weighs 143 pounds. This has happened so many times that Mister Rogers has come to see that number as a gift, as a destiny fulfilled, because, as he says, ‘the number 143 means “I love you.” It takes one letter to say “I” and four letters to say “love” and three letters to say “you.” One hundred and forty-three. “I love you.” Isn’t that wonderful?’”

It didn’t come by accident. But through hard work and intentionality and, yes, faith, Fred Rogers told his young fans “I love you” in everything he did. When I was a child, he told me, too.

These days, I’m a lot like Lloyd Vogel. I can be cynical. I’ve seen would-be heroes rise and fall and I don’t believe in role models.

Except, maybe, for Mister Rogers.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood gives us a hero—one very different from those we typically see on screen and one, in many ways, better. Captain America or Wonder Woman are cool and all, and yes, they save the day. But here, Mister Rogers is more than just a hero: He asks you to be one, too .

The world is filled with ugly neighborhoods, yes. But if you look closely, you’ll find beauty in them, too—and the beauty in each of us. And if we try, we can make our neighborhoods a little more beautiful, just by being us—the us we are and the us we want to be. We can take those same keys on our emotional piano—the ones that we sometimes want to smash—and make music with them. We can turn our pain to purpose. We can love, just as we are loved.

Our entertainment landscape is filled with fun stories, powerful stories, even inspirational stories. Many a movie will make you laugh or cry or think. But very few make you want to be a better person. And that’s what makes A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood a pretty beautiful movie.

After seeing, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood , your family may be inspired to reach out to make your own neighborhood a better place. Here are some ideas from Focus on the Family on ways to reach out.

Show Your Kids How to Be Hospitable to your Neighbors

An Others-Centered Christmas

Transforming Lives and Hearts Through Hospitality

The Gospel Comes with a House Key

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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Why his 2013 romantic comedy is "more relevant in the last decade" explained by joseph gordon-levitt, 10 harsh realties of rewatching the lion king, 30 years later, a beautiful day in the neighborhood is a touching tale of love and forgiveness, bolstered by hanks' impressive turn as rogers..

One year after helming Oscar-nominated biopic Can You Ever Forgive Me? , director Marielle Heller returns with another true-story awards hopeful in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood , featuring Tom Hanks as beloved children's television host Fred Rogers. That combination of actor and role sounds almost too good to be true on-paper, but much like the real Mr. Rogers, the film offers viewers a delightful and sincere experience that might even be therapeutic. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is a touching tale of love and forgiveness, bolstered by Hanks' impressive turn as Rogers.

Rather than being a biopic encompassing Rogers' life and career (like last year's documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? ), A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood instead focuses on cynical investigative journalist Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys). As Esquire preps their upcoming issue on inspirational heroes, Lloyd is assigned to profile Rogers. Initially dismissing the icon as an overly hokey personality, Lloyd gradually realizes there's more to Mr. Rogers than meets the eye. Through his interactions with Rogers, Lloyd may be able to come to terms with his own feelings, including animosity towards his father, Jerry (Chris Cooper).

Tom Hanks and Matthew Rhys in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Heller makes the fascinating choice to use the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood program as a framing device for the movie's proper story, allowing the film to essentially play as a long lost episode intended for adults dealing with anger. The added touch of modeling establishing shots and scene transitions after the show is also nice, giving A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood a charming and offbeat feel that's perfectly in line with its source material. Heller's technical filmmaking is complemented by Micah Fitzerman-Blue & Noah Harpster's script, which covers plenty of rich thematic ground that's applicable to just about anyone in the audience. Though the final destination is fairly predictable and apparent within the film's opening moments (even for those who aren't familiar with the true story it's based on), the journey is still pretty rewarding and contains valuable lessons for life.

Hanks delivers a characteristically strong performance as Mr. Rogers, finding the right balance so that it doesn't come across as an imitation. He's able to dig deeper and tap into Rogers' underlying humanity, showing that even he is not a perfect person and deals with personal pain. Hanks has garnered Best Supporting Actor buzz for his work, and he'd certainly be a deserving nominee. Rhys is also very good as Vogel, never allowing the character to slide into the realm of unlikeable. It'd be easy for audiences to root against someone who's skeptical of Mr. Rogers' wholesomeness, but through Rhys' performance, Lloyd is an empathetic protagonist. The decision to have A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood be his story and detail his personal transformation is smart. The film avoids retreading the documentary, and the narrative is relatable since Lloyd is a more "normal" everyday person than the kindly Mr. Rogers.

Chris Cooper and Matthew Rhys in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

With Hanks and Rhys carrying much of the movie, the rest of the cast is a little underserved by comparison. Susan Kelechi Watson and Cooper play two important figures in Lloyd's life as his wife Andrea and estranged father Jerry, respectively, but they're very much relegated to supporting roles. Their characters are a bit clichéd, which minimizes the impact their standard arcs leave. At the same time, Watson and Cooper make the most of what they're given to work with, with the latter in particular giving a heartbreaking performance as a regretful man yearning for forgiveness. The shortcomings with their characters have more to do with the routine trajectory of the screenplay than anything they do onscreen.

Since its world premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood has earned strong word-of-mouth, though the overall Oscar buzz is muted when compared to the other titles in contention. It may not be a Best Picture frontrunner at this point in the race, but that doesn't discount everything else it has to offer. As families get together for Thanksgiving, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is definitely worth a watch, delivering a powerful and relevant message for all viewers - even younger moviegoers who didn't grow up with Mr. Rogers guiding them through childhood. And for those who are familiar with Mister Rogers' Neighborhood , this'll be a sweet tribute to the man's legacy.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is now playing in U.S. theaters. It runs 107 minutes and is rated PG for some strong thematic material, a brief fight, and some mild language.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, originally titled You Are My Friend, is a biopic on Fred Rogers, the iconic host of the beloved TV series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. The movie focuses specifically on Mr. Rogers and Lloyd Vogel. Tom Hanks stars as Fred Rogers alongside Matthew Rhys as Lloyd Vogel.

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The Mr. Rogers Movie Isn’t Really About Mr. Rogers

Tom hanks is uncanny in a beautiful day in the neighborhood , but fred rogers remains a riddle..

The opening scene of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood , Marielle Heller’s not-quite-biopic of the beloved children’s television titan Fred Rogers, establishes a relationship between screen and audience that’s at first comforting, then unsettling. A door opens on a living-room set that will be familiar to anyone who either was or had a child between 1968 and 2001, the years Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood aired on public television around the country, and in walks Mr. Rogers (Tom Hanks), clad in the jacket and dress shoes of the outside grown-up world. As he changes into his red cardigan and navy blue tennies, he greets us in his usual gentle, unhurried manner, saying it’s wonderful to be with us and that he has lots of things he’d like to share today. Then, just as we’re relaxing into the movie we think we’re in—a warmly nostalgic tribute to a revered cultural figure, played by an all but equally esteemed actor—Mr. Rogers opens one of the windows on the cutout paper house beside him to reveal the face of a handsome, youngish man with a dazed expression and a bloody cut next to one eye. “I’d like you to meet my friend Lloyd,” he says.

Given that Fred Rogers diligently went over all his show’s scripts to ensure there was nothing that would needlessly traumatize or confuse children (even as he was discussing such topics as death, divorce, and political assassination), it’s safe to say that the introduction of such a photograph would never have taken place on an episode of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood . With the sudden entry of Lloyd and his scary facial contusions into the safe space of Mr. Rogers’ house, the audience’s relationship to what’s unfolding on the screen abruptly changes. A minute ago we were stand-ins for children watching the show; now we seem to be somehow inside the brain of Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), a cynical Esquire reporter tasked with profiling Rogers for a roundup of inspiring portraits. That sense of dislocation persists throughout the movie: Was the whole introductory scene, like a series of surrealistic interludes to come, merely a figment of Lloyd’s imagination?

A Beautiful Day is based on a 1998 Esquire article by reporter Tom Junod , whose name has been changed and his backstory substantially rewritten for the movie. The “real” Lloyd never punched out his estranged father (Chris Cooper) at his sister’s wedding and got punched right back, thus accounting for the bloody, blank-eyed face in the photograph. Nor did Junod have a wife with a newborn son at a time when he was too work-obsessed to give them the time and attention they needed. But Junod had his own long-suppressed family traumas and internal resistances to change, and the journalist has said that Lloyd’s on-screen friendship with Fred Rogers substantially mirrors the one Junod and Rogers shared over the last five years of the latter’s life.

The fascinating but frustrating Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood , then, is no standard biopic but a very narrowly cast reimagining of one specific relationship late in the life of a noted person. It’s debatable whether Fred Rogers even is this movie’s subject, since the character of Lloyd Vogel gets significantly more screen time. More importantly, it’s Lloyd whose subjectivity is laid bare to us in scenes like that opening pop-up in the cutout house, or a later moment when he shrinks down to the size of the hand puppets who populate Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood of Make-Believe. Hanks’ embodiment of Rogers—no doubt the reason many viewers will be curious to see this movie—is astonishing in its depth and richness, but the character still remains an enigma that we never come close to solving. A well-developed storyline follows Lloyd, his wife Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson), their infant son, and Lloyd’s extended family; meanwhile, we rarely see Fred and his wife Joanne (Maryann Plunkett) together, and then never without Lloyd in the room with them. A fan of Mr. Rogers—or of the excellent documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? , which broke box-office records in 2018—might be forgiven for wishing for a little more Fred and less Lloyd.

And yet Heller’s third film after two nearly perfect early outings, the acerbic high-school comedy Diary of a Teenage Girl and the rueful true-crime drama Can You Ever Forgive Me? , comes by its ungainliness honestly. Indeed, what appears to interest the filmmaker about the story is the initial awkwardness of the match between journalist and subject, the jaded, anxious Lloyd and the devoutly Christian, preternaturally patient Fred. Lloyd’s reputation as a journalist (established in a few overly hasty and formulaic scenes with his editor, played by Christine Lahti) is as an unmasker of phonies, a finder of the dark recesses behind every apparently sunny story. But as he discovers after a few days of tailing the famous broadcaster on set and on the road, Mr. Rogers really is just what Mr. Rogers appears to be, whether he’s unintentionally making every customer in earshot weep at a Chinese restaurant, doing his daily laps in a swimming pool, or riding a New York City subway where a pack of kids, eventually joined by the adults in the car, serenade him with the theme from his own show.

It isn’t that Fred Rogers has no unexplored dark places. In a scene where he shows Lloyd the hand puppets that are the show’s longtime props, the imperious King Friday the 13 th and Fred’s shy alter ego Daniel Tiger, Fred’s inability to stop deflecting questions by responding in the voices of the puppets hints at some deeply defended core of his personality. And when listing healthy ways to deal with anger and aggression, he suggests pounding all the low notes on a piano at once, then demonstrates the resulting cacophony with an un–Mr. Rogers–like joy in sheer noise. But whether because of the script (by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster) or because of Heller’s and Hanks’ discretion in choosing how much to show us, the character of Fred (or “Rog,” as his wife calls him) remains stubbornly opaque. We see plenty of the side of him that is an intuitive teacher, a trained Presbyterian minister, and an impromptu therapist to an extended network of friends, fans, and just-encountered strangers. But seldom do we glimpse the husband, the father (Rogers’ two sons never appear as characters), or the private man.

The movie’s last third, in which Lloyd and his aging father begin to reestablish a relationship through the ministrations of the ever-engaged Mr. Rogers, occasionally sags under the weight of affective excess. The secondary characters supporting Rhys and Cooper in these scenes, especially Watson as Lloyd’s loving but fed-up wife, at times seem like script contrivances placed there to give our protagonist something to struggle against, someone to disappoint and then seek forgiveness from. The best-written relationship in the movie by far remains the one between Mr. Rogers and Lloyd, who perceive early on that despite their temperamental differences, each has something to offer the other. And the ever-present potential for bathos in a movie about accessing one’s own inner child is offset by a dedication to visual whimsy and playfulness that can recall Michel Gondry. Recurring establishing shots of Pittsburgh and New York City, the two cities where most of the action takes place, are created from toy-like miniatures complete with tiny moving cars, referencing the opening credits of the PBS series.

These anti-realist touches, paired with the naturalistic performances of the two leads, place us in a peculiar narrative world not that far removed from the bifurcated universe of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood , where a miniature trolley would transport viewers from the live-action world of the living room to the make-believe realm of talking puppets. That tension—between reality and fantasy, the importance of honesty and the necessity for escape—finds expression in the movie’s mysterious last shot, a rare moment of solitude for Hanks’ Fred Rogers as he lingers on the soundstage after yet another taping of his reliably comforting show. For a few seconds Fred does something unexpected, a gesture performed for the benefit of no one but himself, and we get a brief sense of the unsettled depths beneath the surface of a man we grew up thinking we knew.

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A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood review: Tom Hanks steps into the shoes of another American treasure

The actor is one of the few american treasures that might be equal to fred rogers in his sense of unflappable grace and kindness, article bookmarked.

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Dir: Marielle Heller. Cast: Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys, Susan Kelechi Watson, and Chris Cooper. PG cert, 108 mins.

A door opens on a cosy suburban home, decorated in warm colours and varnished wood. It’s sparse and a little stiff, as television sets tend to be, but inviting all the same. In walks Fred Rogers . He takes off his suit jacket and dress shoes; puts on a red zip-up cardigan and trainers. All the while he sings down the camera: “It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood/A beautiful day for a neighbor/Would you be mine? Could you be mine?” This was the way every episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood began. The show ran from 1968 to 2001 and, in that time, Rogers became America’s unlikely spiritual guide. With soft words and an open heart, the former Presbyterian minister helped guide children through the complex tragedies of the adult world, whether they be death, divorce, or war. When disaster strikes, his words will be deployed as a comfort: “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

No film could ever hope to expose the dark side of a man shrouded in near-mythical goodness. Whatever flaws he had, they were kept far away from the public eye. In making A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood , director Marielle Heller embraces that sense of impossibility. Instead of trying to excavate her subject, she explores the unique nature of his image. Her film sits neatly beside her previous works, Can You Ever Forgive Me? a nd The Diary of a Teenage Girl – all smart, empathetic portraits of humanity.

It takes inspiration from journalist Tom Junod’s cover story on Rogers, published in Esquire in 1998. Screenwriters Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster have turned Junod into the fictional Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) in order to invent a troubled backstory: Lloyd is estranged from his father (Chris Cooper), whose great act of betrayal is sketched out slowly and delicately over the course of the film. Lloyd scoffs at his editor when she first assigns him to do a profile on Mr Rogers – he doesn’t do “puff pieces” – but becomes fixated on peeling back that angelic veneer to find the darkness inside.

The top 10 Tom Hanks films

Rogers proves to be a poker-faced opponent in this game. After all, when Lloyd looks into his interviewee’s eyes, he’s also looking into (in a fourth-wall-breaking kind of way) the eyes of the actor who plays him – Tom Hanks, one of the few American treasures that might be equal to Rogers in his sense of unflappable grace and kindness. It’s a small victory that such subtle work has been recognised by the Academy, with the film landing Hanks his first Oscar nomination in 19 years. Hanks has never been one for obsessive mimicry, so he merely softens and slows his voice a little, letting the ends of his sentences lift up towards the heavens. The rest of his performance is invested in perfecting a direct, but compassionate gaze. In one crucial moment of silence, he looks right at us.

It’s a moment of intervention, for both Lloyd and the viewer. The former has been emotionally crippled by the rage he feels towards his father (Rhys is skilled at expressing the deep-rooted exhaustion of a man who’s never had a good night’s sleep in his life). The latter will inevitably bring their own wounds and neuroses to the table. Lloyd doesn’t find the skeletons he was looking for in Rogers’s closet. Nor does Rogers reveal the secret to saintliness. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is, at its core, a film about the hard and constant work of becoming a better person. Like Rogers himself, Heller finds the gentlest of ways to deliver an uncompromising message.

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A beautiful day in the neighborhood, common sense media reviewers.

Biopic captures Rogers' generous spirit, empathy, kindness.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Like Mr. Rogers says on his show, the movie encour

Rogers is the ultimate contemporary role model for

A character punches his (drunk) dad, gets punched

Married couples embrace, briefly kiss/cuddle in be

"What the hell," "holy crap." "Freakin'" (as in "M

Esquire magazine is prominently featured, as is Mi

Adults drink, in a couple of cases to excess. Refe

Positive Messages

Like Mr. Rogers says on his show, the movie encourages people to be neighborly and kind, to forgive those who've wronged us, to count blessings in our lives. He wants every child, every person to believe "each of us is precious." He believes that the best thing adults can do is remember what it was like to be a child -- that sense of awe and wonder, the opportunity to grow. Rogers encourages people not to shy away from tough topics like death, divorce, war ("anything human is mentionable, and anything mentionable is manageable") but to explain them to children at their level and to always provide hope.

Positive Role Models

Rogers is the ultimate contemporary role model for how to live a purposeful life full of love, faith, kindness, compassion, integrity, acceptance, inclusion. He doesn't turn anyone away, loves people no matter their background, wants to help the sad, frightened, broken. His personal mission is to help children feel special, resilient, loved. Lloyd starts off cynical, distrustful, unwilling to bend, but learns to forgive himself and his dad and to get reacquainted with his father before it's too late. He becomes a better and happier person thanks to friendship with Rogers.

Violence & Scariness

A character punches his (drunk) dad, gets punched by someone else at a wedding reception. Lloyd collapses; Jerry passes out. References to a father's negligence and emotional abuse.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Married couples embrace, briefly kiss/cuddle in bed.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"What the hell," "holy crap." "Freakin'" (as in "Mister Freakin' Rogers"). Rogers shares that he was bullied and ridiculed as a boy, called "Fat Freddie," etc. A man calls a woman "doll," which her husband finds offensive.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Esquire magazine is prominently featured, as is Mister Rogers' Neighborhood . Fred and Joanne play a Steinway & Sons piano. Andrea holds the baby in a Snugli.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adults drink, in a couple of cases to excess. References to a father's substance abuse. Background smoking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is a biopic based on the unlikely real-life friendship between Fred Rogers ( Tom Hanks ) and journalist Tom Junod ( Matthew Rhys ). In the movie, cynical writer Lloyd (a fictionalized version of Junod) is hesitant to believe that TV's Mister Rogers can truly be "the nicest man on earth," but as he and Rogers bond, Lloyd's life is slowly transformed, both personally and professionally. Hanks playing Rogers will be enough to appeal to many viewers, and kids familiar with Rogers' show and legacy may be curious to find out whether the man in the cardigan was truly that compassionate and generous ( spoiler alert? he was!). There's a little bit of violence (two punches thrown during a fight at a wedding reception) and adult substance use (including background smoking), as well as a couple uses of words like "hell" and "crap" and some marital kissing/cuddling. The movie also deals with serious themes like death, forgiveness, and estranged family relationships. But overall it's quite positive and inspiring. Rogers teaches everyone around him about the power of kindness, love, and connection. He encourages children and adults alike to believe that they're special, worthy of love, and capable of forgiveness. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say (29)
Kids say (20)

Based on 29 parent reviews

The kindness of Fred rogers in extraorianary. Great film for families

Helps show the value of talking about our feelings, what's the story.

A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD isn't a typical biopic, because it doesn't follow its central character through an extended portion of their life. Instead, the movie focuses on the transformational friendship between Esquire magazine journalist Lloyd Vogel (a character who's based on real-life writer Tom Junod and played by Matthew Rhys ) and Fred Rogers ( Tom Hanks ). Lloyd is assigned to profile Rogers for a special spread about cultural heroes. After Lloyd, who's estranged from his father, Jerry ( Chris Cooper , always a pleasure to see) -- and has recently become a parent with his supportive wife, Andrea ( Susan Kelechi Watson ) -- meets Rogers for the first time, he can't believe the man could possibly be as nice as he seems. Their first interaction, on the set of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood , is short, so Lloyd and Rogers meet up again and again, striking up an unlikely friendship that transcends that of writer and source.

Is It Any Good?

This drama is a poignant, powerful tribute to the man who embodied kindness and love to children and adults for four decades, thanks to Hanks' fabulous performance. Director Marielle Heller 's ( Can You Ever Forgive Me? ) second unconventional biographical drama isn't a straightforward birth-to-death chronicle but rather a fascinating look at how a jaded man who's highly cynical about father figures and role models learns to forgive, love, and trust more through his growing connection with Fred Rogers. Rhys is well cast as a distrustful Manhattan journalist (his wife, beautifully played by Watson, even begs him "please don't ruin my childhood") who slowly realizes that Rogers is the real thing.

Despite Rhys' compelling storyline as the emotionally closed-off Lloyd, this film belongs to Rogers -- and therefore to Hanks' portrayal of the soft-spoken, cardigan-sporting, devout children's programming creator. Hanks transforms into Rogers without it feeling like a strict imitation. Yes, he captures the essence of Rogers' speaking voice, walk, and overall demeanor (as far as anyone who watched the series is concerned), but the performance isn't a carbon copy; it's an homage. Fred and Lloyd's relationship leads to personal growth and acceptance, and the movie is full of Rogers' philosophy about each child, each person being precious. Rogers was indeed an extraordinary man, and the film is a reminder to everyone that generosity, kindness, security, and love are all we really need to be happy.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Mister Rogers' messages in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood . What did he teach Lloyd? How did Lloyd change thanks to his friendship with Fred?

What does Rogers mean by the idea that "anything human is mentionable, and anything mentionable is manageable"? How can viewers apply that idea in their own lives?

Why is Rogers such a beloved role model? How did he show and inspire empathy , compassion , gratitude , and basically all of the character strengths ?

What current shows continue to educate and inspire the lessons and values that Rogers worked to instill in children?

Movie Details

In theaters : November 22, 2019
On DVD or streaming : February 18, 2020
Cast : Tom Hanks , Matthew Rhys , Susan Kelechi Watson
Director : Marielle Heller
Inclusion Information : Female directors, Black actors
Studio : TriStar Pictures
Genre : Drama
Topics : Friendship , Great Boy Role Models
Character Strengths : Compassion , Integrity
Run time : 108 minutes
MPAA rating : PG
MPAA explanation : some strong thematic material, a brief fight, and some mild language
Award : Common Sense Selection
Last updated : March 16, 2024

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A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood writers break down Tom Hanks' powerful minute of silence scene

Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster open up about crafting the most powerful scene of the year.

Warning: This post contains light spoilers for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood .

Some movie moments are so powerful, even their makers can’t get through them without crying.

“We got emotional on the set every day. There was a lot [of] hand-holding and gathering around the monitors, just quivering with tears,” A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood cowriter Noah Harpster tells EW of working on Marielle Heller’s Mister Rogers-themed drama , an Oscar-worthy achievement he and writing partner Micah Fitzerman-Blue spent 10 years developing.

Of the many tear-jerking moments, however, the most powerful (and pivotal) comes approximately halfway through the film, when, in a bold move, Fitzerman-Blue and Harpster’s script directs viewers to leave the world of the film and reflect on their own lives. While seated opposite his latest profile subject ( Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers ) at a Chinese restaurant in Pittsburgh, Matthew Rhys ‘ Lloyd Vogel — a cynical Esquire magazine writer grappling with deep-seated daddy issues — cracks under the therapeutic pressures of his latest interviewee, who asks him to accept his decades-old feelings of rage and frustration as byproducts of an absent father whose actions, while painful, inadvertently taught him the vital difference between right and wrong, and have helped make him into the man he is.

Then, it happens: As the bustle of clanking plates and lunchtime chatter lessens around them, Rogers asks Vogel to take a minute of silence to consider the people who’ve loved him into being. For the next 60 seconds, Vogel and Rogers sit in quietude while the camera pans around the restaurant ( diner patrons include Fred Rogers’ real-life spouse, Joanne , and David Newell, the actor who played Mr. McFeely on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood) before training on Hanks’ face as he shifts his gaze from Vogel to the audience in the theater, asking us to consider the most important people in our lives as well.

For our recurring Making a Scene feature, EW recently caught up with the scene’s writers to discuss the idea behind the profound moment and what it was like watching Heller, Hanks, and Rhys bring to life the most precious piece of their 10-year labor of love.

The sentiment

“From the beginning, this project was a chance to have Fred Rogers talk to adults in the way that he spoke to children,” Harpster says of the film’s structure, which stages the film’s central story like an episode of the original Neighborhood show — complete with Hanks’ intermittent to-camera narration from the set of the show. Both writers say witnessing grown adults weep while Rogers attempted the reflective bit (once at the 1997 Emmys and later during his 2002 Dartmouth commencement address) inspired its placement in the film. “That was our hope with this entire movie: to get people in the entire audience to think about their own lives and their own experiences and childhood in the way that Fred was able to.”

“Your instinct as a parent, when your kid is crying, is to fill the discomfort with noise, [and say] ‘Don’t cry! It’s going to be ok!’ [and] distract them out of their feelings,” Fitzerman-Blue adds. “What [Rogers] was so committed to was allowing parents to make it safe for their children to have feelings. We wanted the movie to recreate that feeling, to have Fred Rogers hold space for you.”

The structure

The scene epitomizes Harpster and Fitzerman-Blue’s unique approach to translating the Rogers legacy to the big screen, but figuring out how to incorporate the moment of silence into the fabric of their already emotionally expansive story meant toying with structure and timing. Both writers say initial versions of the script always had the scene taking place inside the Chinese restaurant (it’s a scene that begs for softness of the heart, as Rogers reveals to Vogel he’s a vegetarian because he couldn’t “eat anything with a mother”), though it shifted locations after redrafts before landing in its original spot.

“This is a movie about someone learning how to forgive and crack open their heart, if only a little bit, to create a real change in their life,” Fitzerman-Blue explains, adding that the scene works at the film’s midpoint because it represents a turning point for Vogel’s softening heart. “Fred finally has chipped away the cynicism and Lloyd becomes a convert. He’s willing to listen to Fred in a way that he wasn’t in the first half of the movie.”

One thing that never changed about the scene, the writers say, was the moment Rogers turns to the camera and breaks the fourth wall — a move they admit could have been “schmaltzy” in the hands of a lesser director than Heller.

“Over the years, people would read the script and say, ‘You can’t do that. What are you doing!?’” Harpster remembers. “When Mari read the script, she said, ‘First off, we’re doing the minute of silence looking right in the camera!’ Like, all of these things we’d questioned over the years, she just got.”

After 10 years of finessing their work, Harpster and Fitzerman-Blue wanted to be present on the Pittsburgh-based set while Heller filmed the scene, and it ultimately came to mean more to them than simply witnessing the translation of their written word to moving image, but rather a validation of the project’s soul by the people who knew Rogers best.

“We invited everyone Noah and I spent years trying as best we could to convince them to let us make this movie,” Fitzerman-Blue remembers, referencing Rogers’ family and friends who make cameos in the scene — including his widow, Joanne, and real-life business partner Bill Isler ( played by Enrico Colantoni in the film ). “The movie behind this moment is the softening of the real Bill Isler, who, when we first came [to Pittsburgh] almost eight years ago, said there will never ever be a movie about Fred Rogers, but ‘you guys seem nice, so, I’ll keep talking to you.'”

He continues: “To take it from that point to this moment at the Chinese restaurant with Joanne [and] all these people who had been the keepers of the flame, it was its own climax that was happening for us. It was the personal fulfillment of a dream we had to make this movie, not on our own, but in partnership with Fred Rogers’ family, his estate, and everyone who was part of the show.”

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is now playing in theaters nationwide.

Film Review: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Hits Peak Kindness

Fred Rogers becomes an unlikely hero for a struggling Esquire writer

This review originally ran in September as part of our TIFF 2019 coverage.

The Pitch : In 1989, talented, but cynical magazine writer Lloyd Vogel ( Matthew Rhys ) is assigned a profile on Fred Rogers ( Tom Hanks ) by his editor ( Sakina Jaffrey ) in an effort to soften his reputation. In the wake of a disastrous encounter with his estranged father, Jerry ( Chris Cooper ), Lloyd is particularly wary of Rogers’ seemingly interminable real-life kindness and generosity.

As he struggles to balance his job and his relationship with his father, wife Andrea ( Susan Keluchi Watson ) and newborn son Gavin, Lloyd slowly learns to embrace Rogers’ teachings about love, anger, and fatherhood. In the process of writing his article on one of the most beloved figures in children’s television, Lloyd winds up learning how to move forward with his own life.

(Read: Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood Celebrates 50 Years of Good Feelings )

A Brand-New Sweater: Fred Rogers and his aspirational teachings are more culturally relevant than ever thanks in part to the one-two punch of Morgan Neville’s well-received 2018 documentary, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? and now Marielle Heller ’s film. Although this is an adaptation of Rogers’ real-life friendship with journalist Tom Junod that came about as a result of the latter’s Esquire profile , screenwriters Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster have adopted an unorthodox narrative bracket by framing the story as an episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood .

This means that the film features the typical segments that viewers see on the show wherein Rogers opens his front door, removes his jacket, puts on his iconic red sweater and shoes and introduces a segment for the day. In this case, Rogers shows the audience a picture of Lloyd, which serves as the entry point into the narrative proper, by way of the series’ trademark miniature city skyline, which is expanded here to include a mock-up of New York city.

Loner Mentality: Lloyd Vogel is a fascinating character for both Heller and Rhys. For the former, this is the second straight damaged, antihero protagonist that she has trained her lens on following the more traditional Lee Israel biopic, Can You Ever Forgive Me? As for Rhys, the former The Americans actor is a smart choice to play the role of a man dedicated to his job and struggling to connect with his emotional family life. He’s only been performing a variation of it for six seasons on a certain masterful FX series.

“Don’t Ruin My Childhood”: At its core, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is concerned with issues of child rearing. Lloyd has significant daddy issues as a result of Jerry’s infidelity when Lloyd’s mother was ill, and the writer has never forgiven him. In the present, Lloyd struggles to process his complicated feelings for family: not only does he not want to spend time with his ailing father, Lloyd has resolutely refused to take time off from work since the birth of his son.

One of the biggest laughs in the film occurs when Andrea learns of Lloyd’s profile of Rogers and she warns him, “Don’t ruin my childhood.” It’s funny because it confirms that even Andrea is aware of Lloyd’s bad reputation; it’s also a testament to the impact that Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood had on a certain generation of children.

Finally, it reflects the film’s interest in acknowledging that children experience pain, trauma and challenges. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood suggests that the way these issues are addressed during seminal childhood periods directly impacts the kind of adults that we become. This becomes more evident the more time that Lloyd and Rogers spend together: while Lloyd is cynically attempting to dig up dirt to prove that Rogers is as fallible as everyone else and that his TV persona is a performance, Rogers is subtly forcing Lloyd to work on himself (almost like a human improvement project). At one point Bill Isler (Enrico Colantoni), Rogers’ PR rep, suggests that Rogers likes people like Lloyd, which Lloyd (mis)interprets as a synonym for “broken.”

The truth, of course, is something far less nefarious and far more human than that.

After Andrea reads Lloyd’s completed piece, she reflects: “This isn’t really about Mr. Rogers at all. It’s about you.” The statement is a fairly clear metatextual reference that applies more broadly to A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood , which — by adopting the framing device — is actually highlighting Rogers’ principles to help both Lloyd and the audience watching the film to become better, more emotionally vulnerable and humane people.

Won’t You Be My Friend? Unsurprisingly, Tom Hanks is the perfect man to portray the kindest “hero” in America. He manages to capture Rogers’ mannerisms without succumbing to imitation or parody. Part of the appeal of Hanks is that his mere presence naturally channels his real-life reputation for being warm and personable.

There’s also something enigmatic about Hanks’ Rogers. There’s a magical whimsy to the performance, akin to Mary Poppins, in that Rogers arrives at just the right time to help guide Lloyd from lost boy to caring father and husband (Peter Pan is even briefly visible in one scene). A Lloyd Vogel-worthy cynic could suggest that casting a megastar who so clearly embodies the same qualities as Fred Rogers is the most media-savvy move that the film could make … and yet it works because the actor and role are such a perfect fit. Audiences will inevitably fall in love with this charming, twinkle-eyed performance from one of the nicest actors in the business.

The Verdict: By refusing to adhere to traditional biopic tropes, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood becomes something far more fascinating. Its playful narrative structure — using the format of a Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood episode to tell a broad, appealing story about childhood, parenting, pain, and anger — helps make the film more memorable. Featuring an uncanny performance by Tom Hanks and an emotionally vulnerable Matthew Rhys, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is a wonderfully kind and emotionally rich drama about letting go of the past in order to grow up.

Where’s It Playing? Mister Rogers returns to screens in a brand-new format on November 22nd.

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A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Reviewed by: Samuel A. Torcasio CONTRIBUTOR


Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience:
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Copyright, TriStar Pictures, a division of Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment

Handling internal anger properly

Caring for a dying mother

Dealing with the disappointing and sinful behavior of a parent

Parents and children who are estranged

Son’s continuing great anger toward his father

How bitterness affects us and others

Fred McFeely Rogers—Presbyterian minister, musician, puppeteer, writer, producer, and children’s show host

Believing that people are the most important thing in our world—make time for them in your life

Being a person who very INTENTIONALLY behaves kindly and graciously towards others, and looks for teachable moments to share Godly truth , faith and hope

Looking for every opportunity to make yourself and others better

Being a person who is faithful to keep their vows and promises

The importance of practicing kindness and compassion

Being a person of empathy, rather than selfishness and callousness

The importance of being a light in a world of darkness and pain

For a follower of Christ, what is LOVE —a feeling, an emotion, or an action? Answer

Developing gentle strength / Willingness to stand for truth and good, but doing it gently

Defending and practicing decency

How can I know what is RIGHT or WRONG? Answer

How can I DISCERN whether a particular activity is wrong? Answer

What is GOODNESS? Answer

What is RIGHTEOUSNESS? Answer

What is HOLINESS? Answer

The importance of prayer

Offering boundless mercy and unconditional love to others

Parents and teachers using life circumstances as a teachable moment for youngsters

Everything in life is a lesson of some kind

Featuring	… Fred Rogers … Ellen … Lloyd Vogel—journalist … Andrea Vogel—Lloyd’s wife … Jerry Vogel—Lloyd’s father … Bill Isler—President and CEO of Family Communications … Dorothy … Lorraine Maryann Plunkett … Joanne Rogers—Fred’s wife Kitty Crystal … Subway Punk Michael Masini … Richie Carmen Cusack … Margy Noah Harpster … Todd Kevin L. Johnson … Darin Scharf Scott Rapp … Bartender Matthew Iacono … Mister Rogers Fan Heather Habura … Award Presenter Mike Ancas … WQED Grip Rebecca Watson … Diana Tom Bonello … WQED Grip and Electric Katrina E. Perkins … Mr. Rogers Superfam Alex Perez … Parent Ted Williams … WQED Electrician Kelley Davis … 1st AD Daniel Krell … Mr. McFeely Amy Lyn Elliott … WQED Makeup Artist Gretchen Koerner … Doctor Stephen West-Rogers … Peter Francesca Calo … Train Passenger Di Zhu … Waitress Patrick McDade … Rick Scott Matheny … Journalist Phil Nardozzi … Hospital Visitor Gregory Bromfield … Awards Banquet Waiter Trevor Stevie Ray Ontiveros … New Yorker Jivan Xander Ramesh … Mr. Rogers' Fan Edlyn Sabrina … Gala Guest William Kania … Orderly Lloyd Crago … Gala Attendee Kirsten McCain … Gala Attendee Nigel Swinson … Singing Kid #1 Rosie Koster … Esquire Employee Laurie Sheppard … School Teacher on Subway Gavin Borders … Young Boy Jordan Rhone … WQED Production Assistant Spencer Lott … Puppeteer #1 Kayla Fan … Singing Kid #2 William Caraballo … Port Authority Passenger Nathaniel Johnson … Waiter Frank Wilson … WQED Sound Technician Jackson Nunn … Grip Raymond Wormack … WQED Grip & Crew Mark August … Young Boy's Dad Mark Newara … Gala Attendee Jim Fitzgerald … Restaurant Diner Ryan Sobota … Wedding Band Guitarist Jon L Peacock … Sound Guy Nicholas Baron … Journalist Chris Breen … EMT Robert Edward Healy III … Orderly
Director
Producer
Distributor	, a division of Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment

“There’s always something you can do with the mad you feel.”

A true story based on the real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Tom Junod, and inspired by an article on Rogers that Junod wrote for Esquire in 1998 called “Can You Say Hero?”. According to producers, and contrary to early belief, the film is not a biopic of Fred Rogers. Rather the film centers around journalist Tom Junod and his experience interviewing Rogers, and the impact it had on him. It was shot in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, with much of it right at Fred Rogers Studio.

Director Marielle Heller is longtime friends with Tom Hanks’ son Colin, and met the former at a birthday party in which she pitched him the project. Heller claims that access was fortunate because Hanks had put out the word through his agency that he wanted a break from playing real-life people (This is the 8th film he has portrayed an actual person) and to not send him those scripts.

Tom Hanks, who is arguably one of the greatest living actors, delivered a remarkable performance. Like a true actor, he prepared well. At the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, Tom Hanks mentioned that he watched “hundreds of hours” of footage of Fred Rogers on set and behind the scenes in order to get into character.

Director Marielle Heller brings us an excellent story, that has a simple yet profound and unique message. Fred Rogers was a unique person who had a message of kindness and forgiveness that the world really needs to hear right now. Heller noted that Rogers “doesn’t have the dynamic nature you need for a protagonist for a movie’ and considered him “the antagonist [ ] who comes into someone’s life and flips it upside down through his philosophy and the way he lived his life.’

Whether you are familiar or unfamiliar with the true story, and we won’t get too much into the details of the plot, this is a film worth seeing. It has at its heart a message of forgiveness. The film does not delve deeply into the specifics of Roger’s Christian faith, and its message is not explicitly Christian, though the concepts of love, forgiveness, and kindness are clearly biblical. I would recommend this movie to anyone who is struggling to forgive someone. It moved me to tears. The movie alone cannot change your heart, but it can’t hurt either.

Roger’s faith is not completely overlooked either. The movie, though it shows what a kind and gentle man Fred was, goes out of its way to say he was not perfect. Mrs. Rogers shares with Tom that her husband had struggles with anger , and that one of the ways he dealt with it was to read Scripture , pray for people specifically by name, swim laps, and write letters to people.

Fred Rogers was a people person, he put people over business, and this movie does an exemplary job of conveying it. He remembered people and their specific prayer requests. What a blessing such a person is! I remember a professor I had in seminary, Dr. Jim Rosscup, who scholar though he was, he was also a man of prayer, and he loved the students. I’ll never forget that I had asked him to pray for my grandfather, and one day I ran into him in the seminary hallway and after greeting me he asked, “How is your grandfather, Angelo?”. He remembered my grandpa by name! That’s how Mr. Rogers is in this film, because that’s how he was in real life, and you get a beautiful glimpse of it here!

In the film Fred Rogers talks much about forgiveness and says “It’s hardest to forgive those we love.” It is shared that his show “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood” was about giving children positive ways to deal with their feelings. Fred teaches that “there are many ways to deal with your feelings without hurting yourself or others”. Tackling the idea of justice , one of the puppets sings, “When the whole world seems so very wrong, and nothing you do seems right.” The film definitely deals with the concepts of right and wrong .

In our lost and fallen world , it often seems and often is the case that justice evades us. Though the film does not get into it, we must be assured that one day God will right all wrongs. In the meantime, we need to make sure we repent of our wrongs and make sure our account with God is right. Justice and Mercy met at the cross of His Son Jesus Christ. This film hits on the theme emotionally and powerfully, but it does not expound on the theology. At the very least though it is a conversation starter.

Mr. Rogers also talks about “the mad” [anger] inside us. He is trying to speak in a way that kids can understand. He teaches that “there is always something you can do with the mad you feel.” Indeed, this is a biblical principle. We do not just put off sin , but we must put on righteousness (Ephesians 4:22-24). Like Mr. Rogers we must renew our minds by reading Scripture and praying . We should also like him do some physical exercise, which the Bible says does profit some (1 Timothy 4:8). We should add though, we must never put our trust in our own strength, but even when we are doing Godly practices, we should do it with our eyes fixed on Christ crucified and risen, trusting fully in His strength.

This picture gets into some deep things, as did Roger’s classic TV show as Tom points out, “Death, divorce, war, it gets dark.” The show aimed to tackle real life things that are hard and that many kids have to face. Rogers understood rightly that “there’s no normal life free from pain.”

A Biblical Analysis of the Film’s Message

Without having a robust theological message, I could see how some might interpret the film as simply having a “feel good” message. Rogers wanted everyone to know they are precious. There’s no mention of repentance of sin and turning to Christ (though one of the characters does genuinely repent to one of the other characters). Without the theological foundation, the movie could be interpreted as having a message of universalism. However, I do not think that was the intention of the film, and admittedly I have not engaged in an in-depth study of Roger’s life to know how accurate they have interpreted his thoughts and beliefs. Generally speaking, though, my thinking is that Hollywood tends to be light when it comes to the Gospel. I think this film does have basic and important Christian concepts, but Christians need to be discerning and fill in the gaps.

Roger’s message that everyone is precious is true. Every human being is special. That may sound like self-esteem therapy, but the fact is every human being is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27), and therefore every human being is special. Everyone needs to know their worth before God. But they also need to know that such a worth also makes them accountable to God. When we disobey God, and hurt others made in His image, He will rightly hold us accountable. Those who do not repent will perish in Hell . This is why Jesus came, to die for us and save us from our sins if we will believe in Him (John 3:16-18). The human heart left to its own is hardened and sinful (John 3:19-20). Only by the grace of God can we have the faith to believe in His salvation (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Don’t take the lack of theological grounding and clarity necessarily as a criticism of the film. Remember, we are not simply critiquing but analyzing the film as Christians, and taking the concepts it addresses and filling in the gaps with our biblical understanding. As believers we should talk about and analyze films, as well as everything in life, through a biblical lens.

Rogers at one point says, “the very same people who are good sometimes, are the very same people who are bad sometimes.” There is definitely truth there. Humans made in the image of God, both believers and unbelievers, often do things that reflect the goodness of that divine image . And those same people, both believers and unbelievers, are fallen sinners that often do bad things. The true believer should always be growing toward more Christ-likeness in the process of sanctification .

In God’s sight, it is totally unacceptable for a Christian to refuse to forgive others. Remember the parable of the master who forgave a guilty man who owed him an amount so enormous that he could never hope to pay it back? The master completely forgave him. But, afterward, that forgiven man roughly grabbed another who owed him a very small amount, and allowed him no time to repay—showed him no mercy—and threw him into prison. When the master heard of this, he was FURIOUS and his punishment was swift.

In that parable , the Master represents God. And the forgiven man represents you—if you have similarly FAILED to forgive another, when Christ’s blood has paid your unpayable debt to God, and He has forgiven you for everything you have ever done wrong —and for your continuing failures to do everything that is truly right and good .

“In a word, live together in the forgiveness of your sins , for without it no human fellowship…can survive. Don’t insist on your rights, don’t blame each other, don’t judge or condemn each other, don’t find fault with each other, but accept each other as you are, and forgive each other every day from the bottom of your hearts…” —Dr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

Again, the strongest theme of this film, I think is that of forgiveness and its importance in a person’s life . This is a thoroughly biblical concept. And this is not only vitally important for our relationships now, but it is eternally important for our relationship with God. The Lord Jesus said:

“but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” —Matthew 6:15

Content of possible concern

There is some strong thematic material, a brief fight and some characters yell at each other. There is some drinking and some foul language (listed below), including moderate profanity, but none of this is said by Mr. Rogers, and it seems to be used to reveal the character of certain people. There is brief cleavage, and a husband and wife are seen together in a bed, but clothed.

Fred Rogers is portrayed as a vegetarian and says, “I just can’t imagine eating anything with a mother.”

“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” is highly worth seeing . Overall, it’s clean and wholesome, and has Christian themes. The theme of forgiveness and kindness is refreshing, and the world is in big need of it. Further, it’s a movie that can be used for productive conversation afterward—expounding upon some of the themes and discussing some of the issues. Don’t forget to pray for Tom Hanks and the others actors and people behind this movie, specifically that they would know Christ for who He truly is, and receive His wonderful forgiveness and kindness!

Profane language: Moderate— • “ H*ly cr*p” • “J*sus” • “Oh my G*d” and “Oh G*d” (1 each) • h*ll (3), including “Grow the h*ll up” and “What the h*ll kind of insane question was that?” • “ D*mn it”
Vulgar/Crude language: Minor— • s-word (1) • cr*p (1) • “He’s Mister freaking Rogers” • I think I heard one “a**”
Violence: Minor
Drugs/Alcohol: • the journalist’s father drinks heavily and often, and is depicted as drunk once
Nudity: • shirtless males • some cleavage
Sex: • comment about a father committing adultery while his wife was dying • husband and wife kiss (brief)
Occult: None

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers .

PLEASE share your observations and insights to be posted here.

Forgiveness
Resurrection

Religious Music & Entertainment

Review: ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’ and the Power of Hope

On Friday, with the release of the film “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” children of all ages will be able to return to a friendly, familiar neighborhood. Tom Hanks stars as iconic children’s television host Mister Rogers in a film directed by Marielle Heller (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” “Diary of a Teenage Girl”).

Since 2003, when Rogers passed, the world seems to have gotten a little bit colder and a little less forgiving. Idealistic children who grew up with his pleasant affirmations have been pushed and sometimes knocked down with the challenges of growing up. It’s a good time to be reminded that everyone has worth, and kindness, grace, and forgiveness have not gone out of style.

The story centers on Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), a fictionalized version of real journalist Tom Junod, who profiled Rogers for “Esquire” magazine in 1998. Vogel approaches the host with suspicion and jaded ambivalence. He feels Rogers is beneath his expertise, so for spite, he’s determined to expose any secrets or shortcomings. As he begins to profile Rogers, the host turns the tables on the interviewer, instead of putting the spotlight on him.

The “putting others first” philosophy directed the course of the film, departing from a straight-up biopic of Rogers to highlighting the effect he had on others. To most of the world, who viewed him through a screen, he was a warm and comforting voice. To those who were fortunate enough to have relationships with him, he was transformational.

Rogers’ faith, which wasn’t pronounced even though he was an ordained minister, was central to the ideals he shared with others. He encouraged forgiveness and grace for all and practiced prayer. In one scene which was drawn from real life, he kneels in prayer at his bed recounting a long list of names of people who needed divine intervention. And his prayers worked.

“Do you know what that means, to forgive?” Rogers tells Vogel, who is struggling with pain and bitterness. “It’s a decision we make to release a person from the feelings of anger we have toward them.”

In a diner, Rogers also leads Vogel in a moment of silence, an exercise he often shared in real life. “Just take a minute and think about all the people who loved us into being,” he suggests. “Just one minute of silence.” It’s one of the film’s most powerful moments because, at that point, it’s not just about Rogers and Vogel, but it’s about every one of us. Rogers is speaking to us from beyond the grave, encouraging all to love, heal, and let go of hurt and pain.

Hanks, who has sometimes repeated a familiar wisecracking character into various other films, does an excellent job in this role, disappearing into Rogers’ soft-spoken skin. Rhys also perfectly captures the perspective of a man moving from skepticism to hope. The film also features Susan Kelechi Watson as Vogel’s wife and Chris Cooper as his father

“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” is a beautiful portrait of a man whose words and actions changed the world and those around him. It succeeds by focusing on the impact a carrier of hope can have on those who’ve lost their way. It is a simple but profound story about kindness, compassion, and forgiveness modeled by a beloved personality whose legacy continues to inspire.

For more coverage of “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” including an interview with screenwriters Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, click here .

DEWAYNE HAMBY is a communications specialist and longtime journalist covering faith-based music, entertainment, books, and the retail industry. He is the author of the book “Gratitude Adjustment.” Connect with him on Facebook , Twitter , YouTube or InstaGram .

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Movie Reviews

Movie review: 'frozen 2' and 'a beautiful day in the neighborhood'.

Bob Mondello

The simultaneous openings of Frozen 2 and the Mr. Rogers bio-pic A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood offer a chance to talk about the changing nature of children's entertainment.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

A Quiet Place: Day One review – "Lupita Nyong'o and Joseph Quinn are excellent in this gripping spin-off"

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Adding a dose of 28 Days Later to the mix, this is a gripping spin-off centred on a powerhouse performance.

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Lupita Nyong’o heads up this A Quiet Place prequel, which takes place – as the title suggests – on the day blind, violent aliens come bouncing down to Earth. The star is tremendous as Sam, an outspoken poet who is terminally ill and living in a hospice. She gets a chance for a trip to her beloved New York City when the hospice organizes a day out at a show. But – you guessed it – the show is interrupted by sirens, and an emergency that sends the city into a panic.

Quickly realizing that the aliens are attracted to noise, the citizens hide where they can and try to keep schtum. We follow events from Sam’s perspective as they unfold in what feels like real time – and it’s gripping stuff. Like the previous two films, this finds the right balance between nerve-racking action and thoughtful character-building scenes.

Day One is refreshing, too: Sam is in many ways an unusual hero for a mainstream thriller. She is emotionally strong, but physically ailing, and she is also accompanied by a winning companion: Frodo the cat, who immediately enters the hall of fame of great felines in cinema. Accompanying Sam everywhere (often on a leash), the black-and-white kitty shows intuition and loyalty, as well as remarkable restraint when it comes to vocalizing his feelings – any cat owner will recognize how fortunate this is in this particular apocalyptic predicament.

Another spot of role reversal comes via Eric (an excellent Joseph Quinn), a frightened law student who looks to Sam to reassure and protect him. The pair have a tangible connection as they share whispered and signed details of their lives – and with the end of Sam's life looming, along with many others, there are poignant reflections on mortality, memory and how we choose to live – and die.

The first Quiet Place movie not directed by John Krasinski (who has a joint story credit), Day One is written and directed by Michael Sarnoski (Pig). And while it shares plenty of DNA with the first two films, it has its own distinct character. It's a compelling and moving watch – and as always, you might want to choose your moments to grab the popcorn...

A Quiet Place: Day One is released in UK cinemas on June 27 and in US theaters on June 28.

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Movie review: 'Quiet Place: Day One' familiar, still fun

Joseph Quinn and Lupita Nyong'o try to survive "A Quiet Place: Day One." Photo courtesy of Paramount

LOS ANGELES, June 27 (UPI) -- With the third film, A Quiet Place: Day One , in theaters Friday, the franchise settles into a method for extending its gimmick indefinitely. This is still fun, though less significant than the first two entries.

Sam (Lupita Nyong'o) is living in hospice. Her nurse, Reuben (Alex Wolff), takes a group into New York on the day that aliens attracted to sound arrive. Advertisement

Sam is trapped in the city and quickly figures out that silence is the best defense against the monsters. Day One becomes a series of sound-based suspense sequences, which is fine.

A franchise about how making noise can kill you can be just as fun as the Freddy, Jason and Chucky entries exploring clever ways those killers can terrorize new victims. Or, the Saw films , with new traps and the Final Destinations, with deadly set pieces. Advertisement

So Sam has to cross a room littered with broken glass. The survivors can work really hard to prevent a big noise from attracting the monsters, only to be done in by a small, mundane noise.

A Quiet Place has the budget to stage such set pieces in New York City, or at least a convincing recreation thereof. Sam sneaks down abandoned streets and high traffic throughways, while the creatures scale skyscrapers.

One effective sequence is not even sound-specific, but Sam hides under a car. When the tires start to deflate it becomes a ticking clock for her to escape and find a new hiding spot.

What Day One is missing from the first two films is a deaf character whose whole family could communicate via American Sign Language. Focusing on new survivors gives A Quiet Place new accouterments, but they're less special without the deaf/ASL angle.

Sam crosses paths with Eric (Joseph Quinn), who emerges from the subway. They try to communicate with looks, which would be how most hearing people would have to adjust. Advertisement

Day One gets into the human stories of Sam and Eric along the way, but it feels more obligatory than the family drama of the first two films. Day One just needs to give them something to do to justify the monster fun.

Henri (Djimon Hounsou) from Quiet Place: Part II was also in New York with his wife and son on Day One . The prequel still leaves one wanting to spend more time with him.

Making Sam a terminal patient introduces other potentially interesting drama, but the film only follows it in the most conventional directions. The fact that Sam is not going to live either way could be explored more.

Surely, the human survival instinct remains whether it's the will to survive for another week or several years. Certainly, instant death by monster still seems worth avoiding, despite the pain Sam still endures from her medical condition.

The crisis does not dramatically change Sam's outlook on her fate. It gives her a goal within the city, but only to the extent she now has freedom from supervision, for better or worse.

One plot device of Day One might contradict Part II but it would be a spoiler to discuss. Advertisement

The premise of A Quiet Place is compelling enough that sequels can continue to tell standalone stories of survivors in different regions. They'll become increasingly familiar with each entry, but some will also rise to the challenge to distinguish themselves like in all franchises.

Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.

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Celebrate Juneteenth at these Maine events

The holiday is Wednesday, but events start this weekend and run through the end of the month.

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Westbrook Middle School students Bella Zollarcoffer, Priscila Nzolameso and Sarikong Oak held tables educating and informing the community on Black hair history at Westbrook’s Juneteenth celebration last year. Cullen McIntyre/Staff Photographer

Juneteenth, which became both a federal and state holiday in 2021 , celebrates the anniversary of federal troops’ arrival in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, to ensure all enslaved people had been freed. This year, the holiday falls on Wednesday, but celebrations are happening over the next two weeks.

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. – Indigo Arts Alliance presents The Welcome Table, an intergenerational symposium celebrating global cultural and culinary histories. Activities include art, movement and meditation workshops led by activists and cultural workers. 60 Cove St., Portland. indigoartsalliance.me

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. – Victoria Mansion is hosting a community day with free admission and a recitation of the Emancipation Proclamation by local actors. 109 Danforth St. Portland. victoriamansion.org

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. – Space and the Tate House Museum are putting on a Juneteenth community day with free admission and tours of Ashley Page’s “Imagining Freedom” exhibit at the museum. The historical art piece puts viewers into the shoes of an enslaved woman named Bet. 1267 Westbrook St., Portland. space538.org Advertisement

1-6:30 p.m. – The first event of “The City that Carries Us: Pain, Streets, and Heartbeats” will take place at the Public Theatre in Lewiston. The celebration will have a parade and a block party with performances, as well as scheduled activities and rituals throughout the day. It is hosted by the organization Maine Inside Out. 31 Maple St., Lewiston, maineinsideout.org

2-3 p.m. – Through “Poems of Reckoning and Resilience,” the Portland Museum of Art and Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance seek to honor the legacy of Black Americans. Featured poet Nathan McClain will join local poets in the Great Hall at the museum to celebrate Black liberation and creativity. The museum is also offering free admission Saturday through Monday, in celebration of both Juneteenth and Pride Month. 7 Congress Square, Portland. mainewriters.org

11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. – The fifth annual Juneteenth Celebration on House Island in Casco Bay will focus on Black joy, as well as nature, health and economic opportunity. Guests can stay for one or two days, and partake in activities like camping, hiking, yoga and games, all led by BIPOC leaders. Fortland, House Island, Portland. eventbrite.com

4:30-7 p.m. – The Community Organizing Alliance is putting on an event with speakers, live performances, poetry readings, a voter registration drive and catering by Bab’s Table. There will also be opportunities to get involved in the racial justice movement. The Atrium at Bates Mill, 36 Chestnut St., Lewiston. eventbrite.com

1-3 p.m. – Riverbank Park in Westbrook will host a community event with art, poetry, music and guest speakers. There will also be a barbecue picnic, a student fashion show, hair braiding, pick-up soccer and more activities sponsored by the city. 667 Main St., Westbrook. On Facebook.

7-8 p.m. – The Portland Yoga Project is putting on a class called “Liberated Breath: A Juneteenth Yoga Experience” that seeks to reflect on the holiday through yoga. The class is free for BIPOC community members and is sponsored by the Portland Public Library. 7 Bedford St., Portland, allevents.in

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A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood movie review (2019)
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. "Though of all races, the schoolchildren were mostly black and Latino, and they didn't even approach Mister Rogers and ask him for his autograph. They just sang.". If you've seen an ad or trailer for Marielle Heller 's "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," perhaps you noticed the scene above.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Cori Kind of boring. Thought it was going to more about Mr. Roger's, but instead it was about the guy interviewing him Rated 2.5/5 Stars • Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 05/31/22 Full Review W J W ...
'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood' Review: You Are My Friend
Rogers demurs when Lloyd describes him as a "celebrity," but this film, in spite of its skill and sincerity, can't find anything else for him to be. He seems larger than life, an idol if not ...
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood might be one of the most profound films about father-son relationships ever made. Full Review | Original Score: 8.9/10 | Nov 2, 2023. Beautiful Day is ...
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: Directed by Marielle Heller. With Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys, Chris Cooper, Susan Kelechi Watson. Based on the true story of a real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Lloyd Vogel.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
English. Budget. $25 million [2] Box office. $68.4 million [2] [3] A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is a 2019 American biographical drama film on the TV presenter Fred Rogers, directed by Marielle Heller and written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, inspired by the 1998 article "Can You Say ...
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Review
This is an advance review out of the Toronto International Film Festival. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood opens in the US on Nov. 22 and in the UK on Dec. 6. You can watch our video review for ...
Film Review: 'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood'
Critics Pick Film Review: 'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood' Tom Hanks channels Mister Rogers in a drama about how the legendary children's TV host saves a magazine writer, and maybe the ...
'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood' Review
THR review: Tom Hanks plays Fred Rogers and Matthew Rhys portrays the journalist assigned to profile him in Marielle Heller's biographical film 'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Tom Hanks portrays Mister Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a timely story of kindness triumphing over cynicism, based on the true story of a real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Tom Junod. After a jaded magazine writer (Matthew Rhys) is assigned a profile of Fred Rogers, he overcomes his skepticism, learning about empathy, kindness, and decency from America's ...
Review: Mister Rogers Movie 'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood'
'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood' Review: A Movie as Open-Hearted as Mister Rogers. ... A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is a movie that speaks from the heart. Let it in.
'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood' review
CNN —. Tom Hanks becomes Mister Rogers in "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," a movie that's pretty magical whenever he's on the screen, and fairly mundane when he isn't. Sony is ...
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Movie Review. Every day, he walked through that door, put on his sweater and told us it was a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Every day. ... A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood gives us a hero—one very different from those we typically see on screen and one, in many ways, better. Captain America or Wonder Woman are cool and all, and yes ...
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Movie Review
Heller makes the fascinating choice to use the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood program as a framing device for the movie's proper story, allowing the film to essentially play as a long lost episode intended for adults dealing with anger. The added touch of modeling establishing shots and scene transitions after the show is also nice, giving A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood a charming and ...
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood review: Tom Hanks' Mr. Rogers movie
A Beautiful Day is based on a 1998 Esquire article by reporter Tom Junod, whose name has been changed and his backstory substantially rewritten for the movie. The "real" Lloyd never punched ...
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood review: Tom Hanks steps into the
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is, at its core, a film about the hard and constant work of becoming a better person. Like Rogers himself, Heller finds the gentlest of ways to deliver an ...
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Movie Review
Parents need to know that A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is a biopic based on the unlikely real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Tom Junod (Matthew Rhys).In the movie, cynical writer Lloyd (a fictionalized version of Junod) is hesitant to believe that TV's Mister Rogers can truly be "the nicest man on earth," but as he and Rogers bond, Lloyd's life is slowly transformed ...
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood writers break down Tom Hanks' powerful minute of silence scene. Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster open up about crafting the most powerful scene of the year.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
This review originally ran in September as part of our TIFF 2019 coverage. The Pitch: In 1989, talented, but cynical magazine writer Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) is assigned a profile on Fred Rogers by his editor (Sakina Jaffrey) in an effort to soften his reputation.In the wake of a disastrous encounter with his estranged father, Jerry (Chris Cooper), Lloyd is particularly wary of Rogers ...
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)
Positive —This review by Samuel A. Torcasio on "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" is accurate to the film, and seemingly appropriate for the audience of this Web site. Typically, a review like this would be negatively filled with religious bias, but since this Web site is geared towards that, it passes.
Review: 'A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood' And The ...
Tom Hanks and Matthew Rhys star in "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood." Image courtesy of Sony Tri-Star Pictures. Since 2003, when Rogers passed, the world seems to have gotten a little bit ...
Movie Review: 'Frozen 2' And 'A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood'
Two movies - Disney's animated fairy tale "Frozen 2" and the Mr. Rogers movie "A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood" - both films aimed at different audiences and different age groups. But critic ...
The Eternal Importance of Being Awkwardly Earnest: A Review of "A
Film Review. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Directed by Marielle Heller (Rated PG, 2019). This is an exclusive online movie review from the Christian Research Journal. For further information or to subscribe to the Christian Research Journal please click here. When you to subscribe to the JOURNAL ,you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources ...
A Quiet Place: Day One review
Lupita Nyong'o heads up this A Quiet Place prequel, which takes place - as the title suggests - on the day blind, violent aliens come bouncing down to Earth. The star is tremendous as Sam ...
Movie review: 'Quiet Place: Day One' familiar, still fun
LOS ANGELES, June 27 (UPI) --With the third film, A Quiet Place: Day One, in theaters Friday, the franchise settles into a method for extending its gimmick indefinitely.This is still fun, though ...
Celebrate Juneteenth at these Maine events
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. - Space and the Tate House Museum are putting on a Juneteenth community day with free admission and tours of Ashley Page's "Imagining Freedom" exhibit at the museum. The ...

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