Posted on 11/24/2019 8:04:43 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Lloyd Vogel a is hard-nosed magazine reporter who makes the movers and shakers of the world flee.
He asks the tough questions that undercover corruption. He finds out what the politicians and the businessmen are reallydoing behind closed doors. In other words, he’s the type of journalist no one wants to talk to.
But then Vogel is given a nightmare assignment – interviewing Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood fame.
“You hired me as an investigative journalist. I don’t do puff pieces,” he tells his editor at Esquire.
His editor, though, won’t relent.
“I think this could help you, Lloyd,” she says, referencing his view of the world and his public image.
Will Vogel uncover any dirt on Mister Rogers? Or will the kind-and-gentle TV host end up changing Vogel for the better?
It’s all part of the new film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (PG), which stars Tom Hanks (Saving Private Ryan, Toy Story series) as Fred Rogers, Matthew Rhys (Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle) as Vogel, and Susan Kelechi Watson (This Is Us) as Vogel’s wife, Andrea.
It is based on a true story.
Here are five things you should know:
Warning: spoilers ahead!
Tom Hanks nails the performance of Mister Rogers – from the gentle mannerisms, to the soft-spoken cadence, to the unforgettable changing of the shoes. It is an Oscar-worthy performance. Rhys is impressive, as is Watson.
The film perfectly recreates the look and feel of the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood set. Mr. McFeely makes an appearance. Picture Picture does, too.
The movie also weaves in elements from the show throughout the film. For example, instead of showing us the real skyline of Pittsburgh, where Mister Rogers lived and worked, the film shows us a Pittsburgh-like skyline recreated from toys. Toy cars crawl across the toy bridge. We see Rogers comment, as if speaking to the camera on television, about Vogel’s problems in life. We also learn about how magazines are made – just like the series would have done.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood isn’t a biopic of Fred Rogers, even though it contains plenty of Mister Rogers moments. Instead, the story carries us on a journey as we discover how one man, Lloyd Vogel, was changed by meeting Rogers. Vogel was harboring feelings of hatred toward his father, but Rogers teaches him how to forgive.
It’s not unlike the way millions of children were impacted by “meeting” Rogers each day through the wonder of television.
Photo courtesy: Sony
The movie forces us to ask: Why aren’t we kinder and more compassionate with friends, neighbors and strangers? Why do we get distracted, so easily, by worldly things? And why aren’t we the same person in private as we are in public?
The film portrays Mister Rogers as someone who always had time to do a kind deed. When a Make-a-Wish Foundation child appears on set, before taping, Rogers gives them prolonged one-on-one attention – as the crew stands around and waits for the visit to end. When he and Vogel sit together in a restaurant, Rogers listens intently to his companion – instead of looking around as so many of us would do.
“His focus was always on the individual with whom he was speaking. He was never distracted,” Bill Isler, the former president & CEO of The Fred Rogers Company, told Crosswalk.
The Mister Rogers we saw on TV was the same person his friends knew behind the camera, Isler said.
The Lloyd Vogel character is based on the life of a real-life journalist, Tom Junod.
“I think that you expect everybody to be a different person behind the camera than they are in front of the camera,” Junod told Crosswalk. “Fred was definitely one of those people who was not.”
Politicians often debate the solutions to society’s problems. Perhaps some of the answers rest in the New Testament’s Fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood shows the power of kindness and compassion. It demonstrates what can happen when one person invests in the life of another person. Despite Vogel’s reputation as a hard-nosed journalist, Rogers agrees to the interview. And thanks to Mister Rogers, Vogel changes for the better.
“The thing that struck me about Fred was his degree of empathy,” Junod said. “... It was just an extraordinary thing to watch how quickly he could get people to open up to him and how quickly he could feel whatever it was that they were feeling.”
The movie teaches us about forgiveness and reconciliation, and the importance of fathers and families.
The plot changes a few things about Junod’s story – in real life, he had a good relationship with his father -- but it correctly mirrors Junod’s desire to be kinder and gentler than his dad was.
Junod enjoyed the movie. The father angle, he said, “struck me for its emotional truth, rather than its factual adherence.”
Politicians often debate the solutions to society’s problems. Perhaps some of the answers rest in the New Testament’s Fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood shows the power of kindness and compassion. It demonstrates what can happen when one person invests in the life of another person. Despite Vogel’s reputation as a hard-nosed journalist, Rogers agrees to the interview. And thanks to Mister Rogers, Vogel changes for the better.
“The thing that struck me about Fred was his degree of empathy,” Junod said. “... It was just an extraordinary thing to watch how quickly he could get people to open up to him and how quickly he could feel whatever it was that they were feeling.”
The movie teaches us about forgiveness and reconciliation, and the importance of fathers and families.
The plot changes a few things about Junod’s story – in real life, he had a good relationship with his father -- but it correctly mirrors Junod’s desire to be kinder and gentler than his dad was.
Junod enjoyed the movie. The father angle, he said, “struck me for its emotional truth, rather than its factual adherence.”
Just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas, our can’t-agree-on-anything culture gets a Tom Hanks movie about … kindness.
And even though it’s based on a true story, Fred Rogers’ wife says it has a lot of symbolism.
“This is a parable,” she told Crosswalk, referencing the word’s Webster definition: a short story that illustrates a moral principle.
Her husband practiced kindness and wanted “others to do likewise,” she said.
It’s a lesson all of us could learn.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood isn’t a faith-based like War Room, Overcomer or I Can Only Imagine. Rogers’ faith is mentioned, but it’s not the core of the plot. The film also has minor language (details below).
Still, the film makes clear that Mister Rogers practiced the Fruit of the Spirit because his faith propelled him to do so. We see him kneeling at his bed, praying for individuals by name (Vogel among them). We hear his wife mentioning how he reads Scripture.
In real life, Fred Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister.
“[The television show] was a ministry for him,” Joanne Rogers, his wife told Crosswalk. “... He wanted to be a minister. He wanted to be a teacher.”
His belief in Christ, she added, played a “very strong” role in his beliefs about kindness and forgiveness.
“His faith was exceedingly strong.”
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is rated PG for some strong thematic material, a brief fight, and some mild language. Content warnings: Language includes h-- (4), OMG (2), d--n (1) and s--t (1). (None of it is spoken by Fred Rogers.) We hear a reference to a character “sleeping around.” Two men fight at a wedding.
Entertainment rating: 5 out of 5 stars.
Would rather watch Bob Ross paint happy trees.
Lloyd Vogel? Esquire magazine? Hard-nosed? Isn't that, like, one step above People? Is he a cross between Lloyd Braun and Office Matt Vogel of Latham, Massachusetts?
makes the movers and shakers of the world flee.
Must think he's the Godzilla of People magazine. And we're thousands of fleeing Japanese.
Free Republic has become overrun with curmudgeons and extremely cynical posters. It’s not fun anymore.
“As a kid, I thought Mr. Rogers was creepy.”
I think he was a good person through and through but in his show his manner wasn’t that of most men. However I didn’t mind my kids watching it.
To this day I don’t like Sesame Street but I didn’t mind my kids watching that either.
Slight spoiler:at end Vogel’s dad
is dying.Fred Rogers whispers something in his ear.Later Vogel
asks him what he said.
Fred:”I asked him to pray for me.”
Huh?
“Why?,” asked Vogel.Wouldn’t one expect the opposite?
Fred:”I figure right now he’s very close to God, closer than I am.”
And he wouldn't let us watch The 3 Stooges, because he thought we'd hit each other in the head with metal objects.
We watched The 3 Stooges anyway and hit each other in the head with metal objects. And everybody on The New Zoo Review was creepier than Mr. Rogers.
Hanks lost me when he enthusiastically starred in the creepy BS “CODE” films that besmirched the Lord Jesus Christ with swill about Mary Magdalene, et al, and attempted to destroy the New Testament and the Gospel of Our Lord. Other than that, I guess he’s OK./S!
I agree with you about those films. I sat through the first and didn’t like it at all. It must have been quite forgettable since I didn’t even think about it before I posted.
Yep, he was creepy. Never wanted to watch or have my son watch
.....and the reason for the change to 4F ??
What's the story there?
Mr. Rogers had/has appeal to a very limited age group, maybe 3 or 4 to 5 or 6 at the most, his gentleness and friendly approach, and the consistent daily routine works for those age kids. Once you’re a little older, you start to get the “creepy” &/or boring vibe. But I don’t think he was creepy, just different. Not sure on the stories about him being in the military (or not).
we can fight it, pendajo!
I am sorry, even as a kid I always thought Mr. Rogers was dense and silly. No appeal whatsoever. I admired my heros like Superman, Roy Rogers, Mighty Mouse, the Lone Ranger, I can go all day long with TV heroes of my childhood. Mr Rogers Neighborhood was dumb, boring, and lame. I never could see a purpose in it. He talked slowly and stupid and nothing every happned. There weren’t tons of shows I hated as a kid and this was one of them.
I have no clue why anybody thinks this is worth a movie. Mr. Rogers might have been the bestest, nicesest guy on the plant and if you want to give him a civillian medal or something, OK by me. But the show stunk and I have NO interest in a movie.
Just dumb.
Tom Hanks was really perfect as Fred Rodgers. Just got back from seeing this; and, it really is a movie about a jaded journalist who changes how he looks at life through his interactions and conversations with Fred Rodgers.
I liked the movie, I thought it was very nice and uplifting. I'm glad I saw it.
Definitely. My brothers and I were raised by The Three Stooges and Sargent Saunders.
He spoke to my heart as a child, and then he spoke to my daughters heart when she was a child. She didn’t want to go to school because she would miss Mr Rogers.
That man was a Saint.
I have a friend whose brother actually WAS Mr. Rogers’ neighbor. Lived a couple doors down the street from him in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh. He attests that Rogers was indeed EXACTLY the same guy in real life that you saw on the screen.
I believe McFeely was his mother’s maiden name.
The Mr. McFeely character was named after her.
Oddly, it doesn’t mention his time in Vietnam, storming into villages and burning huts, gunning down everything in sight.
Because it isn’t true but it would have been a really good scene to put in the movie.
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