A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood Review (2019)
It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood. A beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine? Could you be mine?
Everyone should know this song, Fred Rogers, and his show, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood is one of the most iconic things in this world. The show ended around 2001, so I was around five when it ended. But many people can agree the Fred Rogers was the best of us, and his show was one of the few shows that tackled tuff subject matter such as death, pain, bulling, and so much more in a way that kids and even adults could gravitate towards.
Now the question on everyone’s mind. Did A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood meet expectations? Did Tom Hanks do an excellent job as Fred Rogers? And the answer is Yes and Yes. A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood is an excellent representation of how Fred Rogers was, and the set of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was spot-on.
Tom Hank’s performance as Fred Rogers is scary good. For me, it was like Fred Rogers was reincarnated as Tom Hanks for just this performance. I mean, not only was his voice identical to Fred, it was his body language, and so much more. Tom Hank’s performance is authentic, but not only that. The whole film felt authentic from the sound design, Staging, and lighting; everything just felt like we were watching Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood but in better quality whenever we were on set with Tom Hanks’ and that was only part of the film.
The other part of the film focused on Matthew Rhys’s character Loyd Vogel, who is a journalist known for talking bad about other celebrities because of his insecurities with his father. Loyd Vogel is the main focus of A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood because of his relationship with his father. Let me tell Matthew Rhys’s performance as Loyd will most likely be overshadowed by Tom Hank’s performance, but Matthew Rhys did a phenomenal job. For me, his chemistry with Tom Hanks was nothing but brilliant, and I do not think it would have worked without its amazing director Marielle Heller.
This is my first introduction to Marielle Heller, but she does have five directed credit under her belt. She has worked on Can You Ever Forgive Me, Two episodes of Casual, Transparent, and The Diary of A Teenage Girl. And because of this movie, A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood, I will keep an eye out for more of her work, and if you all love this movie, hopefully, you all do the same.
This year for me has been an excellent year for movies. Avengers Endgame, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Joker, Parasite, Toy Story 4, Lion King, Spider-Man Far From Home, Doctor Sleep, The King, John Wick: Parabellum and right now A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood might be top three. Keep in mind I’m still catching up on movies, and the year is still going. We still have Knives Out, Rise of Skywalker, I still need to see Ford v Ferrari, Book Smart, and The Lighthouse. Anyway, my point is A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood is a must-see movie know matter who you are.
DC Fanboy! Superman is the greatest comic book character of all time. Favorite movies are Man of Steel, Goonies, Back To the Future
