✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Cinema

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood review ★★★★★

31 Jan 20 – 31 Jan 21, TIMES VARY

Following the triumphant Can You Ever Forgive Me?, director Marielle Heller returns to tell the story of beloved children's entertainer Fred Rogers

By Euan Franklin on 27/1/2020

2 CW readers are interested
Tom Hanks in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Tom Hanks in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood review 4 A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood review Ella Kemp
Directed by: Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
Starring: Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys, Chris Cooper
Runtime: 1h48min


There’s a minute of perfect silence in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood that’s hard to forget.


The real-life children’s presenter Fred Rogers, played by a sugar-sweet Tom Hanks, is having lunch with the gloomy, cynical journalist Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), who's interviewing him for a profile piece. Spending time with Rogers’ lovingly empathetic personality causes Vogel to rethink some things in his life: chiefly his frosty relationship with his father, and his new duties as a dad himself.


Rogers tells him, over a vegetarian meal, to take a minute remembering those he loves, those who’ve shaped him. Director Marielle Heller stays in this moment and Jody Lee Lipes’s camera slowly presses closer to Rogers. The quiet ambience of the restaurant settles in. For a few delicate moments, it’s as if he’s speaking to us; daring us to think of our own loved ones. Such is the soft charm of Mr Rogers.



Journalist Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys, right) is assigned to profile children's presenter Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks, left)

Beautiful Day, loosely based on a 1998 Esquire article by Tom Junod, not only tells a poignant tale of love and forgiveness, but seems to encourage every member of the audience to find and fix their feelings; to let go of the anger in their hearts. In the current era, which is both more enlightened and more anxious than ever, this film feels valuable and (to use Rogers’ word) special.


Tom Hanks has never struggled in his childish charm, his interview personality being something of a cartoon joker: not real exactly, but extremely affable. He sieves this into Mr Rogers, albeit with a more suppressed and sensible energy. Mr Rogers introduces the film within his movie-set home, his personality bursting beyond the 4:3 telly box frame, and soothes viewers with his honeyed words (‘It’s hardest of all to forgive someone we love’).



Mr Rogers soothes viewers with his honeyed words

Writers Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster straddle a curious line between Vogel’s broken-man mentality and Rogers’ cushy, comfortable fantasy: namely with exterior establishment shots of cities, which are replaced with colourful models. After Rogers’ introduction, we see Vogel at his sister’s wedding. Their estranged but apologetic father (Chris Cooper) is also in attendance, and he and Vogel have a harsh scuffle.


These initial scenes alarm at first, since Rogers’ lovely opening monologue gives way to very functional dialogue that doesn't leave much room for three-dimensional conversation. But when the film comes to Vogel’s interviews with Rogers, leading to the pause that started this review, the words shared between them sparkle and then drift into strange directions.


Rogers is far from 'normal', and his regular dependence on old puppets might seem slightly off-kilter, but there’s never a suggestion of danger in his presence. There’s only one hint of an insult as Vogel asserts that ‘Mr Rogers’ is a character, not a real man.


Beautiful Day is like a soft-talking therapy session – not only for Vogel to improve his family life and his bleak view of humanity, but for those watching, too. Cynicism is an understandable standard, but sometimes it’s worth letting go and remembering what’s good in life. Mr Rogers leads that journey, and perhaps the viewers will exit the cinema happier than when they entered.




What A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood review
When 31 Jan 20 – 31 Jan 21, TIMES VARY
Price £ determined by cinemas
Website Click here for more information



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 3–5 February
Things to do in London this weekend: 3–5 February
London exhibitions on now — Peter Doig, Courtauld Gallery
Top 15 exhibitions on now in London
Zadie Smith new novel, The Fraud, to be released in 2023, photo Justin Holler
An A to Z of trends for 2023

Editor's Picks

Brendan Fraser in The Whale (Photo: A24)
In cinemas this weekend: Brendan Fraser stars in Oscar-bait obesity drama
Renée Zellweger as Judy Garland in Judy
Judy film review
Timothée Chalamet in The King
The King review
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
2

2020

Cinema

Tom Hanks

You might like

  • Meryl Streep stars alongside Tom Hanks in The Post

    The Post film review ★★★★★

  • Melissa McCarthy deserves all the awards for her performance in Can You Ever Forgive Me?

    Can You Ever Forgive Me? review ★★★★★

  • Aaron Eckhart, Tom Hanks – Sully, Clint Eastwood film

    Sully film review ★★★★★



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×