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

intothebackgroundandthefilmturned

fulltimetosolvingtheproblemsofLloyd,

whois basedonthemagazinewriterTom

Junod.It’snotthat Lloydisboring.He’s

justnotthat special.Notcomparedto

MisterRogers,anyway.ButasI write

that,I feela twingeofshame.Mister

Rogerssaideveryonewasspecial.Oneof

hislyricswas“Everybody’sfancy, every-

body’sfine/ Yourbody’s fancy, andsois

mine.”Yousee,I know all the songs. As a

kid,I evenwrote to Mister Rogers to

thankhimformaking me feel less judged,

andthoughI didn’t hear back, I know the

messagegotthrough, because the local

PBSstationmade sure to send me fund-

raisinglettersevery year. (“Mister Rogers

tellsusyou’re a big fan of his!”) Perhaps

if hehadwritten back, I wouldn’t have

becomesojudgmental myself. I wouldn’t

havebeena critic. Or I’d have been the

friendliest,most blurbable critic. Ah,

well.Inthismovie, Mister Rogers reduces

Lloydtoa blubbering child, and I envied

theguy.

DirectedbyMarielle Heller (Can You

EverForgiveMe?), the movie has a neat

visualhook.The cityscapes are card-

boardlike,asinMister Rogers’ Neighbor-

hood,andMister Rogers introduces the

filmasifitwere an episode of a show

inwhichwe’ll meet his friend Lloyd. He

opens,ofcourse,with “It’s a beautiful day

inthisneighborhood, a beautiful day for

a neighbor/ Would you be mine?” while

jauntilychanging from a sports coat and

shoestoa zip-up sweater and sneakers.

I studiedHanksclosely, let me tell you.

Hismovementsare a little jerkier than

therealFredRogers’s, but this isn’t meant

tobeanexact impersonation. It’s Hanks

merginghisown gentle public persona

withRogers’sand allowing the teeniest

bitofironytocreep in—as if Rogers sees

throughLloyd’s obfuscations but bides his

timegentlytugging Lloyd toward health.

YoucanseeinHanksthealmost childish,

almostnaughty pleasure Rogers must

havefeltwhenhe’dstophisshow’s tap-

ingforoveranhourtoplaywitha visiting

autisticboywhileassistantspeered help-

lesslyattheirwatches.Themovie is hon-

estlyhilariouswhenweseeMister Rogers

messupthefoldingofa tentand refuse to

doanothertakeonthegroundsthat chil-

drenneedtolearnthat evenadults’ plans

can go wrong.

Matthew Rhys’s Lloyd is antsy and

high-strung, with a smile that relaxes into

a grimace, but he’s also—he can’t help it—

rather lovable. I hate to say this, given that

Rhys was peerless on The Americans and

proves he can hold his own in a movie, but

I wish the role had been played by a wilder,

more profane actor, a young JackNichol-

son type or even an amorphously scuzzy

Method man like Joaquin Phoenix. Imag-

ine Joaquin Phoenix assigned to profile

Fred Rogers—that’s funny.

As Lloyd’s dad, Cooper has some of that

scuzziness, but he loses his edge along

with everyone else. In its final act,A Beau-

tiful Day in the Neighborhood slows down

and turns maudlin, as if MisterRogers

had weighed in on the story line. Look, I’m

not dumping on Mister Rogers. I told you

I wrote him a fan letter. I cried when he

died. I just wouldn’t want him as my script

doctor. A fuller movie would havefound a

way to acknowledge that kids need the

antic and the unruly as much as they need

the Golden Rule.

But as I write that, I feel another twinge

of shame. My inner Mister Rogerswants a

word with you now: Can you sayhelloto

my friend David? He’s a film critic.Crit-

ics think if they’re too nice, peoplemight

think they’re not very smart. Butpeople

who are nice are the smartest ofall,don’t

you think? They would like thismovie

very much, all the way through.Canyou

say, “One of the year’s best?” ■ PHOTOGRAPH: LACEY TERRELL

Matthew Rhys

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