Two-time Oscar®-winner Tom Hanks portrays Mister Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a timely story of kindness triumphing over cynicism, based on the true story of a real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Tom Junod. After a jaded magazine writer (Emmy winner Matthew Rhys) is assigned a profile of Fred Rogers, he overcomes his skepticism, learning about empathy, kindness, and decency from America's most beloved neighbor.... (Full plot summary below)
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Two-time Oscar®-winner Tom Hanks portrays Mister Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a timely story of kindness triumphing over cynicism, based on the true story of a real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Tom Junod. After a jaded magazine writer (Emmy winner Matthew Rhys) is assigned a profile of Fred Rogers, he overcomes his skepticism, learning about empathy, kindness, and decency from America's most beloved neighbor.
Leave your thoughts about A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
| Original-CinJim SlotekThere are some very funny lines in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, much of it predicated on the outwardly ludicrous meeting of profound cynicism and hope. Lloyd’s character arc is well handled by Rhys (The Americans), and the denouement is one only a Scrooge could call humbug. |
| Movie NationRoger MooreA Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is a biographical essay in sweetness and light. |
| The PlaylistElla KempAround the two men, Heller creates a world that blurs the lines between every form of communication to serve the panoramic impact of her sensitive, almost magical design. |
| Washington PostAnn HornadayIn an era that seems fatally mired in fear, anger and mistrust, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood arrives as something more than a movie. It feels like an answered prayer. |
| New York PostSara StewartIt’s the rare biopic that doesn’t wander into predictability. |
| Slant MagazineKeith UhlichMarielle Heller takes a script that many filmmakers would turn into cringe-inducing treacle and interrogates the sentimental trappings. |
| The Associated PressLindsey BahrHanks is such an obvious choice to play someone as beloved as Fred Rogers that his performance is something that could be in danger of being taken for granted or overlooked. He just makes it all look so easy — the almost uncomfortably slow way that he speaks. But it’s a testament to Hanks that you can’t “see” the work. But much like Fred Rogers, you don’t have to understand it to be moved. |
| The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzHanks is, not surprisingly, excellently cast, but it’s Heller’s direction and inventive aesthetic instinct – everything is washed out browns, with the exception of a moving blue-lit finale – that sell the work so well. |
| RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloAs with Morgan Neville's documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor?", the tears may flow freely due to nostalgia or from some subjects hitting too close to home, but A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood fits as a companion piece. Where the documentary offers a more complex view of the man in the red sweater and tennis shoes, Heller’s movie is more about the cultural impression Rogers left behind. |
| IGNJoi ChildsPersonable, emotional, and packed with humor, this film – and the spirit of Rogers – holds on to your heart and refuses to let go. |
