By Grace Conley

“For a movie advertised to be about Mr. Rogers, this movie is not about Mr. Rogers.”

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood is sweet and simple, but hard to care about. The way this movie is advertised and the stellar casting of Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers, you would really really think this movie would have more to do with his life and it doesn’t at all. The whole story is told through an outside cynical adult closed off journalist, Lloyd. I think they did this to be like hey here’s how Mr. Rogers can be used for grown-ups too.

His messages are universal! But it doesn’t come across as strongly because: 1) it’s very hard to get into the flow of Lloyd’s story, 2) Lloyd’s story is very simply written and detached from any real emotion. I expected this movie to be a heartwarming tearjerker, but it is not at all. The movie isn’t bad by any means, just not what I was expecting and not as personal as I hoped.

I have a few more problems with this movie. I think the pacing is all over the place. From being too slow, too fast, some shots too long and messy like they took them once and couldn’t bother to take it again. I think the laziness I’m feeling is intentional because they make it a point in the movie to be like adults make mistakes too and sometimes you have to show that. Also, Mr. Rogers was a slow, gentleman. My problem is they don’t stick with that theme throughout. There is also an attempted whimsy and suspension of disbelief and it just makes the tone so weird I can’t get a feel for the vibe at all. The use freeze frames sometimes, FREEZE FRAMES!

I don’t know man, this is not my cup of tea, but I may also be biased because I am one of the only people who doesn’t love Tom Hanks. I think he’s hiding something.

But anyways, if you are going to watch a movie about Mr. Rogers, I would recommend the documentary from 2018 Won’t You Be My Neighbor? That movie, in my opinion, is 100 times better than this one and gets at the same message in a far more beautiful, impactful and touching way. It’s also about Mr. Rogers so that’s a plus.

In conclusion, I think this movie is grossly overrated because of Tom Hanks and the subject matter, it’s standing at a 96% on rotten tomatoes which is crazy,  

VERDICT

7.5 out of 10