TIFF 2019: A beautiful day in the neighborhood is a beautiful story of Mr. Rogers

Let's start with one thing: A nice day in the neighborhood It's not a biopic about Fred Rogers. The man millions of children grew up under the name of Mister Rogers, their TV "Neighbor" was the subject of a strong (and very successful) biographical documentary in 2018. If you are looking for the details of his life, start with it.

What you will get A nice day in the neighborhood is a lot lighter in the background, although it has a lot of Rogers too – played in the most perfect cast of the year, by Tom Hanks. Instead of telling the life of the beloved television host again, it is a delightfully strange drama, deliberately designed and filmed to give the impression of an episode of The neighborhood of Mr. Rogers. But it is Matthew Rhys who plays the role of Lloyd Vogel, a version of the real journalist Tom Esquire, sent in 1998 to write a few hundred words about Rogers in a puff and lead to a cover story and a transformed life.

Those who are wary of sentimentality (and me too) may find this premise too cumbersome for words. But looking A beautiful day, I became a believer – not only in the story, but also in the director Marielle Heller, whose 2018 film Can you ever forgive me? was a non-sentimental and yet compassionate story of a piquant person, modified (at least a bit) by a friendship. This film invites us to think of Rogers' philosophy that adults would be better people if they tried to remember the life of a child. It gently brings the audience to filter some very adult emotions through the characters, songs and stories familiar to the world of Rogers. The result is unexpected and unique. It also reflects the influence of Rogers.

A nice day in the neighborhood is the story of an angry man who does not understand Fred Rogers

The plot of A nice day in the neighborhood is simple and based on Junod's experience. Vogel (Rhys) resists the task of her editor, but she insists. He travels from New York to Pittsburgh, where The neighborhood of Mr. Rogers is shot down at WQED, the local member station of PBS.

Vogel arrives on the set, looking a little ragged, what he says to everyone is the result of a softball injury, but in fact, a week earlier, he has punched his father (Chris Cooper) at his sister's wedding, and his father hit back. Vogel, it's clear, is an angry man. Her editor has given her the task of profiling Rogers for the next issue of the "Heroes" magazine because she thinks he needs a way to rehabilitate his reputation. It turned out that Rogers was the only subject to agree to talk to Vogel, whose interviewees tend to think that their pleasant conversations with him become eviscerations on the page.

Courtesy of TIFF

And Vogel is wary of Rogers, who seems both impenetrable and even evasive, which makes him extremely uncomfortable. Rogers asks him about his injury. Vogel demurs. Rogers, in his own way, raises the obvious wounds of Vogel; Vogel responds as he walks. The task lasts, even if he is attracted to Rogers. And as their relationships grow, he finds himself even more bewildered by this amazing man whom he has classified as a nerdy children's artist.

You know somehow where this story will go (if for some other reason you can go read Junod's Rogers profile to find a version). It's a story of forgiveness and grace. But what is the particularity of A nice day in the neighborhood This is how we say and why.

A nice day in the neighborhood looks and feels like an episode of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood

A nice day in the neighborhood seems a bit odd on the screen: Flatly enlightened, sometimes strangely framed, with montages and close-ups that seem more drawn from public television series of the late 90s than cinema. Of course, everything is done on purpose. Heller does not just want us to remember what it was to watch Mr. Rogers on TV, but also feel like watching again.

Hanks-as-Rogers, brilliant, opens the door of his "home" ensemble, singing his song "Will not You Be My Neighbor" – the de facto theme of the series – and performing his ritual. He takes off his jacket and hangs it in the closet, closes his vest and puts on his sneakers, casually throwing a shoe into his other hand with a knowing smile to the public.

Then he begins to tell us about his friends by using a large board with cut out doors, behind which are pictures of people (and puppets) like King Friday the thirteenth and Lady Fairchilde, from the country of Make-Believe. Vogel hides behind a door, with a broken nose. Mr. Rogers is going to tell us a story about his friend Lloyd.

It becomes obvious that A nice day in the neighborhood is presented as an episode of a feature film from the Rogers show, but for and about adults, in which very adult feelings – such as anger against your separate father, or the fear of becoming your own toddlers – are meant to be confronted. Gently, Rogers reminds Vogel (and us) that we all get angry, but what we do with this anger is what matters and forgiveness is the most difficult thing to do.

Courtesy of TIFF

As the drama looks visually, as in the case of an old television show with a modest budget, the scenario corresponds to the script and the film uses even versions of the neighborhood models to the Rogers' little signature to establish places far removed from Rogers. & # 39; TV show (as at Vogel's in New York). The direction of Heller carefully supports this illusion which destroys our defenses; we barely notice our shift from viewing adult movies to the PBS viewing mode of childhood.

In fact, the film behaves more like a complete critical analysis of why The neighborhood of Mr. Rogers was so powerful and had such an effect on the lives of millions of children. It's not that he was the first person to break the fourth wall of kid's entertainment. It's just that when Rogers did it, he thought it: Everyone watching was really part of his world. When he met viewers in real life, children or adults, they were already welcome (even when the time spent talking with visitors could become tiring for his team).

And the idea of ​​the film, as it was on the Rogers show, is both to create an imaginary world and to keep the fourth wall non-existent. Rogers often speaks directly to the children on her show, asking them questions and reminding them that they are special and loved. The film, in a way, does the same thing. (At some point, this happens explicitly.)

The result is something quite different from a conventional film on a beloved figure. In the end, Rogers remains both loved and somewhat mysterious; it is less known that we can better understand by watching a film about him, and rather as a channel for some kind of mystical grace. For those of us who are wary of so much kindness, skeptical that a message as simple as Rogers can really have an effect, the character of Vogel gives us a way to enter. And A nice day in the neighborhood sneaks around the barriers we put in place at adulthood, finding the child inside of us who just wants to know we are loved.

A nice day in the neighborhood his premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. It will open on November 22.