Movie #1826 ........................."A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood"

Movie #1826 "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" -- the film had a clunky opening --- but it sets up right off the bat that this is NOT a film centered on Fred Rogers, but on a journalist who begrudgingly takes a quick interview with him --- Matthew Rhys is the actor who goes through all the angst, changing his viewpoint of this t.v. phenom Fred Rogers.  His first reaction is one many viewers would go into the film with:  is this guy for real?  And the film answers that by  watching Rogers through the journalist's eyes.     Hanks does a better job, I felt, with Rogers in comparison to his Walt Disney caricature.  But then, you have a different person, and Hanks has always been most comfortable portraying honest, earnest people.  This film had lots of creative moments that kept this viewer watching (I must say, I went into the film not being a huge Fred Rogers' fan but like the journalist, I changed my mind -- so it was successful with me over all)  And I thought the set was very cool, the puppet scenes were fun to watch, and I esp. liked when Tom ended up to be a rabbit in one of the scenes --- very effective and powerful.  I'd give this a 4 ---  esp. impressive is Matthew Rhys (the americans) whom I have enjoyed watching since the t;.v. show "Brothers & Sisters").



"A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD"    2019    1 hour and 49 mins

Based on the true story of a real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Tom Junod.

Director:

 Marielle Heller

Writers:

 Micah Fitzerman-Blue, Noah Harpster

Stars:

 Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys, Chris Cooper