Year: 2019
Director: Marielle Heller
Country: US
Language: English
Considering many of childhood heroes have proven to be creepy (Pee Wee Herman from Pee Wee's Playhouse) or one of the most awful people imaginable (Bill Cosby) it was only natural for the public to be skeptical about Fred Rogers; a children's television host who seemed angelic with his public persona of being good natured. Morgan Neville's documentary Won't You Be My Neighbour? (2018) actually showed us that Rogers was indeed a good man. This film seeks to repeat the same facts in an engaging story that, surprisingly, doesn't centre around Rogers.
After a jaded magazine writer (Matthew Rhys) is assigned a profile of Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks), he slowly overcomes his skepticism, learning about empathy, kindness, and decency from America's most beloved neighbor.
Marielle Heller crafts a very different biopic, straying from the traditional formula. Rather than showing Rogers' entire life (as seen in biopics like Bohemian Rhapsody) or a section at the end of his life (such as Judy) A Beautiful Day manages to demonstrate why we were so captivated with Rogers and how his influenced changed viewers in the form of his interactions with writer Lloyd Vogel. The film is essentially an extended episode of the show; often having Lloyd confront his issues as a character in the show.
Lloyd's arc is such that it clashes with Mr.Rogers. Lloyd has trouble being self-reflective, whereas Mr.Rogers tries his best to be in-tune with his emotions. Granted, some of the films' sentiments do come off as psychology 101 & treat a serious issue a bit too lightly, but we can appreciate what the film tries to say. A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood encourages its audience to self-reflect and not steep in anger for too long.
I enjoy films that call for self-examination, not matter how overly sentimental they appear to be. More pictures ought to be about WHY we are attracted to an individual, rather than be a boring play-by-play of their life. It's a bit too sweet and simple for me to call this a great film, but its a worthy one-time viewing if only to remind onself that there are genuninely good people in this world.
No comments:
Post a Comment