[This is a repost of my review from the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. We wanted the movie to recreate that feeling, to have Fred Rogers hold space for you.”. “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” may be one of the most daring movies of the year.The title suggests kid stuff; you know, a chance to embrace the … While seated opposite his latest profile subject (Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers) at a Chinese restaurant in Pittsburgh, Matthew Rhys‘ Lloyd Vogel — a cynical Esquire magazine writer grappling with deep-seated daddy issues — cracks under the therapeutic pressures of his latest interviewee, who asks him to accept his decades-old feelings of rage and frustration as byproducts of an absent father whose actions, while painful, inadvertently taught him the vital difference between right and wrong, and have helped make him into the man he is. ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’ Directed by Marielle Heller, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” is a movie about the man Fred Rogers, but it is not a Mister Rogers biopic. Fred Rogers, whose gentle nature … A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood opens today.. It’s incredibly easy to be cynical. Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster open up about crafting the most powerful scene of the year. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is based on a 1998 Esquire profile of Rogers by journalist Tom Junod, but many of its details are straight from the Neighborhood … this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. Warning: This post contains light spoilers for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. His childhood was challening and he was bullied for being overweight and shy. “Over the years, we were able to go to Pittsburgh and meet the people who knew Fred best and interview them at length multiple times,” says Harpster while recounting a “pivotal moment” with Bill Isler, who he calls the “gatekeeper” of the Fred Rogers Company. Fitzerman-Blue goes on to say that he wanted to tell the story of the Rogers who was “quietly ministering to people after hours, early in the morning, writing letters, praying for people and getting involved in the lives of individuals.” But they also wanted to understand the weight that he took on and where he parked any dissatisfaction he might have had. The scene epitomizes Harpster and Fitzerman-Blue’s unique approach to translating the Rogers legacy to the big screen, but figuring out how to incorporate the moment of silence into the fabric of their already emotionally expansive story meant toying with structure and timing. He didn’t really talk to me about those things, but he talked to Joanne about them. I think it’s okay to be scared and frustrated, and it’s okay to fight losing battles if they matter to you and the person you want to be. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is framed as another episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, with Fred Rogers telling the movie audience … It was the personal fulfillment of a dream we had to make this movie, not on our own, but in partnership with Fred Rogers’ family, his estate, and everyone who was part of the show.”. Not the way of a saint, but of a guy who tried really hard. That they do not - that, indeed, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is not merely a good movie but arguably the single best pure character study of 2019 - is because the film has been somewhat badly misrepresented by its PR people. Despite the pops of nostalgia for Rogers following the release of the film and the Oscar-nominated documentary, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, the reality is that all TV shows and movies get subsumed by what Junod called “the constant, hivey drone of the electroculture.” There is no fresh Mister Rogers content coming and no remarkable envoy to preach on his message with the ability to command the same audience and respect that he had. “This was a movie about forgiveness, but it’s also a movie about anger management,” Harpster tells us before recalling the Mister Rogers song “What Do You Do With The Mad That You Feel?”, “Fred said it in real life and he says it [in the film]. Logic dictates that Fred Rogers got pissed off from time to time. Credit: “If he taught me anything, it was to be open to things. Mister Rogers is not the central focus of A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood. “This is a movie about someone learning how to forgive and crack open their heart, if only a little bit, to create a real change in their life,” Fitzerman-Blue explains, adding that the scene works at the film’s midpoint because it represents a turning point for Vogel’s softening heart. From Junod talking about how Rogers showed him how to let go of anger to become a better man to the words of his songs and his penchant for playing a piano at the end of a day on set, that scene feels right and it feels powerful. Neighborhood [ SPOILERS ] Discussion link is to an external site that may may... The new film a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood opens today.. it ’ s going to be to. Corporation all Rights Reserved to feel with your negative feelings Mrs. Rogers after the credits of Beautiful... Get through them without crying to was allowing parents to make it safe for their to... 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