It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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I met Fred Rogers at an American Library Conference. Having watched “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” on TV for years, I recognized the lanky, almost shy man at a distance. He stopped by the booth I was manning for Cricket, the Magazine for Children to say hello. (I helped launch the publication back in the mid ‘70s.)

Fred Rogers was warm and friendly, with the same delicate mannerisms you saw on TV. He put his arm around my shoulders as if I were an old friend from the neighborhood. His smile was wide as he talked about children and his fondness for his youthful audience.

His preschool television series ran from 1968 to 2001. He won a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 1997 and was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002.

A new biopic titled “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” offers a profile of Fred Rogers. The feel-good film is currently showing at Tropic Cinema.

Inspired by a 1998 Esquire article – “Can You Say… Hero?” – by Tom Junod, the film imitates real life, following a fictional journalist as he interviews Mr. Rogers. Cynical and skeptical, the reporter expects to unmask the television icon’s goody two-shoes facade, but the encounter transforms the guy’s perspective on life to a more positive one.

Yes, it’s a pretty flattering profile of Fred McFeely Rogers. You might get a sugar high from seeing the film.

Nonetheless, there are two reasons you’ll want to buy a ticket. (1) Because you grew up watching “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.” (2) Because it stars Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers.

Two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks (“Forrest Gump,” “Philadelphia”) is almost as beloved as the character he plays. And he slips into the role as easily as Mr. Rogers slipped into his red cardigan sweater. When he invites, “Won’t you be my neighbor?” you’ll be nodding your head.

Matthew Rhys (you’ll remember him as the duplicitous Russian spy in TV’s “The Americans”) is properly jaundiced as the reporter.

Notable cameos include family and friends of Fred Rogers – his wife Joanne, Mr. McFeely actor David Newell, Family Communications chief Bill Isler, and TV show producer Margy Whitmer.

As Esquire writer Tom Junod sums up the movie: “A long time ago, a man of resourceful and relentless kindness saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. He trusted me when I thought I was untrustworthy, and took an interest in me that went beyond my initial interest in him. He was the first person I ever wrote about who became my friend, and our friendship endured until he died.

“Now a movie has been made from the story I wrote about him, which is to say ‘inspired by’ the story I wrote about him, which is to say that in the movie my name is Lloyd Vogel and I get into a fistfight with my father at my sister’s wedding. I did not get into a fistfight with my father at my sister’s wedding. My sister didn’t have a wedding.”

But the parts about Mr. Rogers are pretty true.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com