Twitter Thoughts: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Spoilers

Normally, when I write a post, it’s a review.  Today, I am doing something different.  I began this by composing Tweets about A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.  I thought this was the best way to express myself because it allowed me to focus on the picture’s core instead of the whole movie.  The thread became lengthy for Twitter, so I moved it here.  If you want the background you would expect in a film review—like a detailed plot synopsis—visit Wikipedia.

Here, you need to know that the film, which is based on a true story, is about a cynical journalist Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) who does a piece on famous children’s television host Mr. Rogers (Tom Hanks). He expects to hate Rogers, but is so shocked by his warmth, kindness, and sweetness that Vogel’s life changes.

---

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Marielle Heller): *** ½

Thinking about A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.  What I love about the film is, despite being an optimistic and inspirational tale, it gets what cynicism is.

Matthew Rhys plays his character as suspicious, looking for a weakness, but not condescending or dismissive.  When Mr. Rogers tells him how much he cares for him or what the goal of his program is, Rhys doesn’t roll his eyes or get into a heated argument.

He’s willing to take Rogers at face value.  What he does, instead, is look for the next layer, the dark side he assumes must be filled with negative emotions, desires, and impulses.  He doesn’t think Rogers is full of shit.  Just that he’s human and complex, complex enough to be bad.

That’s a more thoughtful view of how cynical people feel and think than we normally see in cinema.  As someone who’s rather cynical, I don’t assume everyone is a liar or fraud.  But I do think everyone has demons and that it’s often a losing struggle to combat them (true for me).

However, the film’s complex grappling with cynicism is matched by a complex look at optimism.  It turns out that Rhys’ character is right: Rogers does have a dark side and negative impulses.  But unlike Rhys expects, those negative traits don’t ruin the image of Rogers as sweet.

Instead, they enhance it.  Every time Rhys challenges Rogers on something difficult, Rogers responds by admitting his problems, choosing compassion, and using his willpower to keep things in perspective, to stay optimistic.

That’s what makes the film inspiring.  Fred Rogers isn’t a simple, cheerful optimist.  He is as complex as Rhys suspects, as flawed as he expects, but more dignified than he could ever imagine, stronger in the face of adversity than he could dream.

It’s an inspiring picture because it shows how Rogers works at that struggle to overcome it instead of treating him as perfectly above it.

And then the work goes one step further: it has Rogers help Rhys’ character overcome his cynicism by reversing his playbook.

Rhys looked for the hidden layer that contains people’s flaws.  With Rhys and all his friends, Rogers looks for the hidden layer that contains their dignity and compassion.

Rhys found the negatives he felt defined him inside others, which is why he often brought them out: notice how he always grinds his dad down, back to the weak man he was instead of the better man he’s trying to be.

Rogers found the positives he felt defined him inside others, which is why he brought them out: see the Subway scene where children who watch Rogers’ show break out into an impromptu song.

Ultimately, Rogers and Rhys are extremely different on the surface.  One is an optimist and one is a cynic.  But their world-views come from a similar place: the understanding that humans aren’t one thing, they can’t be boxed in, they’re complex.

It’s because of this commonality that Rogers breaks through Rhys.  He doesn’t appeal to the optimist in him, but the complex man who recognizes the difficulty of being human.  In turn, he gets Rhys to stop being lonely, boxing himself in, and allows him to live freely.

Some of you might wonder why I keep typing “Rhys” here instead of his character’s name (Vogel).  Two reasons.  First, laziness.  Second, I want to highlight Rhys’ acting.

Tom Hanks is getting just praise, but Rhys is being overlooked.  A lot of people are just dismissing him as a run-of-the-mill cynic.  But his cynical Vogel is written with complexity and depth.  And Rhys balances all that perfectly.  It’s a great performance.

Anyway, I really like this film.  Some stylistic choices do not land.  The father/son relationship between Vogel and his dad is thin.  But its observations on cynicism, optimism, and their give-and-take feel insightful and honest. It’s wonderful.