A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Review & Commentary)

Transcribed directly from an audio recording

I had a chance to see A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood starring Tom Hanks a few nights ago and wanted to spend some time discussing my thoughts on the film as well as his portrayal of Mr. Rogers. I also wanted to touch on the films we’ve gotten in 2019, generally speaking. 2019 has been a great year for cinema, with home run after home run. The audience has experienced impressive work this year from a variety of talented filmmakers. The phenomenal film, Avengers: Endgame was released earlier this year, which broke numerous box office records and was the conclusion to a decade of films by Marvel. We’ve also had films like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Joker and Ford v Ferrari which were all stellar as well. I’m glad we are seeing wonderful diversity in themes, style, direction and approaches to films in 2019. Different directors with different visions and subject matter. I am personally excited about this year’s Academy Awards and seeing who will win in all of the major categories. The competition in 2019 will be fierce. Both the Golden Globes and Academy Awards will be memorable events. Interestingly enough, some of my predictions thus far have been bumped by newer films with better choices to win. It will certainly be enticing to see the remainder of this year play out and to finally see our official nominations for both major award shows.

General Thoughts

I saw this film on a Tuesday night at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas in Kitsilano (in Vancouver), a great theatre by the way. This theatre offers a premium experience with comfortable seating, better than average dinner selections, alcoholic beverages and most importantly, an adult-only admittance. I watched this film with about seventy-five people in a fully packed theatre. It was cheap night, but I know this film would have been fully packed either way. This film is phenomenal, bottom line. I highly recommend this film but for different reasons than I usually do. This is a very different film than you’re used to seeing, especially in this year of cinema. This film is simply structured but complex with emotion and effectiveness. It is incredibly potent and even though the set locations, design and cast are limited, you’re getting a full punch of sensations. Marielle Heller, the filmmaker, made the right choice on how to tell this tale. This film follows a similar narrative structure to a typical Mr. Roger’s television episode albeit longer (one hundred minutes). This film is not a biopic of Mr. Rogers. In fact, Mr. Rogers is a supporting character, even though the marketing of this film would suggest otherwise. This film is about our lead character, a journalist from Esquire magazine who is assigned to do a piece on Mr. Rogers. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is about his journey and the influence that Mr. Rogers has on him in regard to his relationship with his family.

Tom Hanks & The Cast

I think most people can agree that Tom Hanks is a beloved actor. He’s portrayed something like nineteen real-life characters in his over thirty-year career, all convincingly well. From Sully to Disney, to Jim Lovell and so on, he has embodied these roles phenomenally. If you put all of these characters together in a film, all portrayed by Tom Hanks, you would never get the sense that these were all played by the same person. He does another fantastic job in this film. Tom Hanks slightly resembles Mr. Rogers. He has the appropriate costume, eyebrows and wig to match but he isn’t really doing a spot-on impersonation of Mr. Rogers. He does not attempt to replicate Mr. Rogers completely which is a good choice. Mr. Hanks embodies the spirit and captures the essence of Mr. Rogers. Tom Hanks is beyond effective as Mr. Rogers and I’m sure many will say this is his ultimate performance. I also feel that he accurately captures Mr. Rogers’ effect on people. This is a career-defining role and definitely an Oscar-worthy performance. Tom Hanks is honestly great in everything he does. There simply isn’t a film of his in which I don’t like his acting or his choices. This performance, however, elevates is greatness to new levels, even though he’s already a legend to most. He is a supporting character, but his presence is felt throughout the entire film even though he’s probably only in half of the film. Each time he’s on-screen, he steals the show. I’m a huge fan of Joaquin Phoenix’s performance as Joker, but again, here is another film that will challenge him for the Oscar win. Speaking about the rest of the limited cast, everyone else does a fantastic job. We only see seven to ten speaking roles and each person nails it. In general, there isn’t a performance in this film that isn’t suitable or poorly performed. Everyone is perfectly cast. Matthew Rhys does a fantastic job in the lead. The audience explores his journey and a real change is felt within him over the course of the film. We can see a definitive change in his character from start to finish, which is more than enjoyable to experience. For a Welsh actor, his American accent is spot on. Chris Cooper also does a spectacular job playing the lead character’s father. Chris Cooper, in general, is an awesome supporting actor. His career is filled with quality supporting roles, similar to this, all portrayed extremely well.

The Audience

As I’ve mentioned many times before, I go to the cinema to experience films with the audience. I love the audience reaction. I like the ruffle of popcorn bags and to genuinely feel the experience with others in a unified sense. For most films with large audiences, you get strong reactions: whispers, chatter and some background noise. This film was the complete opposite. It was silent. I mean this in the best way possible. This film is incredibly touching, evocative and emotional. When glancing around the theatre, everyone was intently tuning in with their eyes glued to the screen. Bottom line, you could feel the raw emotion in this theatre. I know myself; I was in tears for probably sixty to seventy percent of the film. Tears of joy, empathy, and sadness. This film is touching, to say the least, in fact, it was probably the most touching film I’ve watched in twenty years. I haven’t had a similar emotional experience since Schindler’s List. This film is presented in such a calm and tranquil way. What a beautiful audience reaction. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood touched every single person in the theatre. This film is highly impactful and really helps you understand empathy and dealing with your emotions instead of tucking them away. This film was generally an exercise for our characters, but more importantly, us as audience members. The message is loud and clear, and very effective. It is not preached; it was simply understood. This film very much feels like we all felt as kids watching a typical episode of Mr. Rogers. We felt that he was listening, cared for us, and was genuinely interested in us as people. There are two critical scenes in this film that are beyond touching. One scene is our lead character witnessing Mr. Rogers and his interaction with a child who is misbehaving. Within a few calm moments, Mr. Rogers and the child embrace and the child begins acting appropriately. This is a potent witnessing to the effect that Mr. Rogers had on others. The other scene is when our two main characters, the journalist and Mr. Rogers are sitting in a café. Mr. Rogers asks the reporter to take a minute of silence to remember all of the people that have loved him in his past. As he does, the entire diner follows in this moment of silence. Tom Hanks, in character, then slowly looks at the camera as to say, to us the audience, please do the same. Everyone in the theatre sat quietly for a minute in reflection joining our two lead characters. As I am saying this, I am in tears recalling this wonderful cinematic experience with the audience. It was beautiful, insightful and impactful.

Conclusion

Bottom line, go see this film. I highly rate this film with sheer affection. I almost give it a perfect score and cannot critique much of it at all without nitpicking. There is a minor narrative flub in the middle of the film, but this will not be noticeable in the slightest to a general audience. The flaws in this film are limited and practically non-existent. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood will be a different film than you expect with an unconventional narrative and nuanced approach to storytelling. The choices by the filmmakers for this film are all in the right place. As mentioned, this film has limited locations, set pieces and cast members and is simple in structure, but complex in narrative, and is abundantly emotionally impactful. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is suitable for all audiences and will effectively make you think about empathy and how to deal with your emotions in positive ways. The message in this film was loud and clear. A terrific job by the filmmakers and another legendary performance by America’s favourite “everyman”, Tom Hanks.