Film Review: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is an incredibly surreal film that can take viewers by surprise if they are unprepared. The movie operates as if the fourth wall doesn’t exist. It’s structured like an episode of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, with frequent cutaways to Tom Hanks’ Mr. Rogers commenting on the story as it’s happening. A Beautiful Day begins with one of these sequences, going 0 to 100 real quick and setting up the exact expectations should have for the film. This isn’t Mr. Rogers’ story; instead, the film is about journalist Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), who is inspired to reconnect with his dying father after interviewing Rogers.

These sequences don’t work. They caused a physical revulsion that nearly sunk the film to the level of Cats. These fourth wall-shattering sequences rely almost entirely on the strength of Tom Hanks’ performance, but Hanks isn’t convincing as Rogers. He never loses the sense of being Tom Hanks playing Mr. Rogers rather than becoming Mr. Rogers. It’s understandable that the studio or whoever wanted a bankable star in the film’s most recognizable role. Still, the part of Mr. Rogers is more suited for a less immediately recognizable actor because the man himself is so iconic.

The editing of the sequences doesn’t help either. The framing device is wholly divorced from the rest of the film, requiring jarring changes in tone from the rather somber “real life” to the whimsical make-believe TV episode. A Beautiful Day is at its best in a 15-minute sequence where the lines between real life and TV blur together. It allows director Marielle Heller to play with both the forms of cinema and television as well as the audience. She keeps them on their toes throughout the rest of the film.

The rest of the film is competently (even beautifully) executed, though far less inventive than that sequence at the beginning of the third act. Marielle Heller is in top form with especially good framing and blocking. She also gets an excellent performance out of Matthew Rhys, who wrings an otherwise stock “cynic who has a change of heart” archetype for real pathos and emotion.

Still, the framing device is enough to hinder the film seriously. It is unnecessary, creepy and more than a little horrifying. The film, which redeems itself in the third act, would have been better off without it.

Final score: 4.0/10