HANKS BECOMES A BELOVED HERO

MISTER ROGERS AND HIS MANY FRIENDS GET ONE MORE TELEVISION SHOW

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Mister Rogers provided insight into daily problems and the mysterious world in such a way that children could understand.

Tom Hanks stars as Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019), directed by Marielle Heller.

Heller turns the television show inside out by creating a surreal multi-media intertextual film about the real life friendship between the children’s television show host and Esquire journalist, Tom Junod.

Junod was assigned to complete a biopic piece on Rogers for a magazine edition profiling heroes.

Matthew Rhys plays Junod, and Chris Cooper plays Junod’s father.

Heller shows how Rogers turns Junod into the story, and even makes him part of his television show for children.

Junod in the end writes a self-reflective piece about Rogers that features as Esquire’s cover story.

Heller does not just turn the story inside out, but the director also creates a tone and atmosphere for the film that is representative of the Mister Rogers persona. Whether you like Mister Rogers or not, Heller immerses audiences in the gentleness and trance like charisma that captivated children and their parents.

The narrative cleverly switches from that of Rogers to Junod and then the television show becomes the movie and the move the television show.

Heller executes tremendous overall vision for the film.

Heller also adds another level of intertextuality by including scenes in which Junod interviews Rogers, which is the original concept of the film, but then Rogers visits Junod’s family.

Heller also experiments with film texture by using different camera technology, one of which created a documentary type look, requiring closer examination to discover that Hanks was still performing as Rogers as opposed to the director using archival documentary film footage of Rogers.

The entire film had a docudrama atmosphere, but the slow moving movie is kept entertaining through the visual stimulation of multi-media and also intellectually stimulating with the intertextual references to the show and the different characters in the movie.

Hanks has become adept at transforming himself into biopic and fictional characters moving forward from roles in comedies such as the Money Pit (1986) co-starring Shelley Long.

Hanks then goes on to portray an AIDS stricken lawyer in Philadelphia (1993) and a mentally challenged individual in Forest Gump (1994), winning consecutive best actor Oscars for the two films. Hanks had previously been nominated for his performance in Big (1989). Hanks was nominated for a fourth Oscar for his performance in Saving Private Ryan (1999) and a fifth as a FedEx executive who survives an ocean plane crash by recreating life on a deserted island, in Cast Away (2001), co-starring Helen Hunt.

Mister Rogers is completely transformed.

Hanks captures the persona by slowing down his voice, facial gestures and body language to duplicate the gentle and compassionate biopic character starring in, writing, producing and composing one of America’s most beloved children’s television programs.

Rogers was also the puppeteer on the show that ran for 33 seasons.

Rhys provides a good performance as the Esquire journalist going through a personal battle with his father while on assignment to cover Rogers.

Rhys has moments when he becomes Rogers and when he becomes Rogers’ puppets and then even becomes part of the Mister Rogers television set.

Rhys previously performed as biopic whistle blower Daniel Ellsberg in the Post (2017), opposite Hanks and Meryl Streep, and a competing chef in Burnt (2015) opposite Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller.

Rhys is able to carry the scenes well, and almost diverts the audiences’ attention away from any prior expectations that the film was going to be an expose on Mister Rogers as performed in depth by Hanks.

Heller creates a unique film for a unique American entertainer. 

Heller does slow down the narrative a bit too much though in order to produce the desired aesthetic effect.