New York Magazine - USA (2019-12-09)

114 newyork| december9–22, 2019

therevelationofMorganNeville’swonderful 2018 documentaryWon’ t
YouBeMy Neighbor?wasthat, awayfromthecamera,Fred“Mister”Rogers
re allywas thatguy.AnordainedPresbyterianministerwhokeptdoctrinewellout
ofhisTVshow,heendeavoredtomake everyboyandgirlfeelloved,hisbugaboonot
Satanbuta child’s harshself-judgmentanditsattendantdespairorcynicism.The
hookofthefictionalizedFredRogersstoryABeautifulDayintheNeighborhood
iswhathappenswhenMisterRogers(playedbyTomHanks)comesface-to-face
witha hardenedcynic,anEsquirejournalist namedLloydVogel
(MatthewRhys)who’s onassignmentfora profilehedidn’t ask
foranddoesn’t wanttodo.Lloyddoesn’t believeinbenevolent
patriarchs—notsincehisfather(ChrisCooper)abandonedthe
familywhenLloyd’s mothergotsick.He’sanangry, angry man,
hardlyabletobepresentwithhiswife,Andrea(SusanKelechi
Watson),andbabysonortomaintaineyecontact withhisbeatific

movies / pop / theater

magazine subject.ButMisterRogers can

smell despair. It fallstothisMagicChris-

tian to give Lloyda safespacetoshow his

vulnerability, gentlybutfirmlyushering

the journalist intohis“neighborhood”

with its ratty puppetsandchoo-choo

train. Can you say“ForgiveDaddy”?

In other hands,thismaterialmight

have been playedforbadlaughsoreven

for horror, but thesehandshavemade

of it a secular salvationstory—afeel-

good movie for peoplewhocanlaugh at

themselves for succumbingtoa feel-good

movie. It disarms a lot of people you’d

think would be immune. They say, “I

actually liked that”—emphasis on “actu-

ally,” as if they couldn’t believe they’d gone

so soft. But there’s more than softnessat

work. Watching our nicest Hollywood

star playing our nicest children’shost, you

don’t want to look like a lost soul.There’s

peer pressure to go squishy.

I actually liked about two-thirdsofA

Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood; I got

impatient when Mister Rogersreceded PHOTOGRAPH: LACEY TERRELL

The CULTURE PAGES

CRITICS

David Edelstein on A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood ...

Craig Jenkins on Everyday Life ... Helen Shaw on The Underlying Chris.

ABEAUTIFUL

DAYINTHE

NEIGHBORHOOD

DIRECTEDBY

MARIELLEHELLER.

SONY. PG.

Tom Hanks

MOVIES / DAVID EDELSTEIN

Everybody’s Fine

In A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,

Mister Rogers saves a journalist’s

soul (and maybe yours).