海角大神

If nothing is more difficult in the movies than convincingly portraying authentic goodness, then 鈥淎 Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood鈥� can be counted near-perfect. It鈥檚 about a dirt-digging journalist, Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys, excellent), who grudgingly accepts an assignment from his Esquire magazine editor to profile children鈥檚 TV icon Fred Rogers (a perfectly cast Tom Hanks) for a special issue on heroes. Caught up in Rogers鈥� tranquil presence, Vogel鈥檚 resistance breaks down. What began as a job becomes a kind of spiritual communion for both men.

This is not a biopic of Rogers, for which I was grateful. Morgan Neville鈥檚 terrific 2018 documentary 鈥淲on鈥檛 You Be My Neighbor?鈥� already tilled that territory. 鈥淎 Beautiful Day鈥� is primarily about Vogel 鈥� a new dad with a fraught relationship with his own father (Chris Cooper in top form) 鈥� and yet in essence it鈥檚 about the beneficence bestowed by Rogers upon all in his orbit.

It was exceedingly smart of director Marielle Heller and her screenwriters Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster聽to frame this story through the eyes of an inveterate cynic. (Hearing of his assignment, Vogel鈥檚 wife, played by Susan Kelechi Watson, only half-kiddingly tells him, 鈥淧lease don鈥檛 ruin my childhood.鈥�) In effect, Vogel is acting as our surrogate, and, as his encounters with Rogers deepen, we, along with Vogel, experience the healing transformation.

The film鈥檚 inspiration is the 1998 Esquire article 鈥淐an You Say 鈥� Hero?鈥� by Tom Junod, in which he writes about Rogers, 鈥淭here was an energy to him 鈥� a fearlessness, an unashamed insistence on intimacy, and though I tried to ask him questions about himself, he always turned the questions back on me.鈥�

It is this 鈥渦nashamed insistence on intimacy鈥� that comes through so unmistakably in Hanks鈥� performance, which is no mere cardigan and soft sneakers impersonation. The touchstone to his characterization is Rogers鈥� intense desire to listen to others and not sound off himself. The way Hanks plays it, this never seems like an evasion but, rather, the height of selflessness. It鈥檚 his way of bringing out the best in people. (His performance is most eloquent in its silences.) It is also his way of bringing out the best in himself. To the adults in this film, Rogers is no simple caregiver or homespun father confessor. He asks others to pray for him as readily as he prays for them, and he means it.聽

Rogers disdains the public perception of himself as a 鈥渓iving saint,鈥� and of course he is right to do so. The authenticity of his goodness derives from the fact that he is a man and not some sort of haloed icon. On his long-running TV show 鈥淢ister Rogers鈥� Neighborhood,鈥� he brought up such issues as divorce, racism, assassinations, and death because he wanted to comfort his young audience and let them know that they were not alone in their fears.

What gives Hanks鈥� performance its ballast 鈥� what elevates it far above the realm of the touchy-feely 鈥� is the suggestion that the comforts he dispenses are hard won because they have come through fire. Rogers doesn鈥檛 deny life鈥檚 desecrations. His conviction, as stated in the movie, that 鈥渆ach one of us is special鈥� carries moral weight because, in spite of everything, he holds to the belief that people are inherently good.

It is not even necessary to wholeheartedly sign on to this belief to experience this movie鈥檚 glow. For the time that we are in the theater 鈥� and for some time after, too 鈥� the aura holds. At least it did for me. Who can fail to smile at the scene (based on fact) where Vogel and Rogers, in a subway car, are regaled by its passengers with the theme song from Rogers鈥� TV show? It鈥檚 irrelevant to complain, as some commentators have, that Vogel鈥檚 reconciliation with his father is predictable. Predictability is the point. This is a movie about the difficult passage from dark to light and the transcendence that takes you there.