I haven’t seen a movie in a theater in ages. So my folks treated me to a movie last night… this is the one we saw… I loved it. What did you think?
I liked it but I feel like my enjoyment was enhanced by seeing the documentary about Fred Rogers that came out last year. I feel like I already knew Fred pretty well at the beginning of this movie. Without that background, Fred may have seemed more… enigmatic, based on this one. It’s hard to know though.
Having seen the documentary allowed me to recognize some of the faces in the diner scene, though. I thought I saw Fred’s real-life widow at at least one of his sons. Some of his other friends or colleagues may have been there also.
Agree 100%. The doc (which is far superior) also shows that he really was the real deal and this isn’t a Hollywood puff piece. And keeping Hanks as a peripheral character (not the center of attention) was a wise move, since a little bit goes just the right amount.
The digital recording style was distracting for a while (though it eventually merges effortlessly with the PBS television aesthetic) and the entire cast is very good, with a special shoutout to Chris Cooper (who I didn’t even know was in the film). Between this and his very touching work in Little Women, it proves he’s a supporting actor MVP who improves everything he touches.
I took my teenagers to see Little Women this weekend, after seeing Neighborhood last week, and they were delighted to recognize Chris Cooper again, in a very different role. And as a man of a certain age myself, his character in LW was the one I most identified with. The scene where he doesn’t want to go into the house because he knows Beth won’t be there is the most heartbreaking of the movie for me.
I feel like a jerk because I didn’t really like the movie.
I am a HUGE Fred Rogers fan, being right in the wheelhouse for some of his best years (born 1979). Make no mistake he was an amazing influence on me growing up, and I’ve since seen a couple documentaries on him and read some other stuff.
I felt the movie was too “movie” and Fred was “Tom Hanks.” Hanks didn’t melt into the character. His puppet voices were awful.
The story itself was just kinda “meh.” A pretty pedestrian movie where Fred Rogers was one of the characters.
I truly do feel bad for not liking it that much. Maybe I hyped it up too much. Maybe I am “too close” to understanding the subject, like people who don’t like Marvel movies after being a steadfast fan for so long.
I don’t know if you could get someone to play Fred Rogers. He is a very very specific person. But putting a huge star in the role just did not do it for me.
ZipperJJ, I can see why you were disappointed with the film. I thought I was going to see a biopic about Mr. Rogers, but his story was secondary to that of the reporter sent to interview him.
I haven’t seen it, but I just gotta ask, aren’t there any other actors in Hollywood other than Tom Hanks???
That’s what I liked about it. I was not expecting this movie. IMO, better than a biopic.
I assume by “movie”, you mean “unrealistic documentary”.
I’d say my favorite documentary is “Born in China”. I don’t know if you’ve seen it or not, but it focuses on a baby panda, an adolescent monkey, and a snow leopard.
“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” is not a documentary so no, by “movie” they mean “movie”. I don’t know what your thoughts on a Chinese baby panda doc has to do with this thread. 
Oh, I thought they were talking about the 2018 documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
I’d say my favorite movie is Titanic.
I don’t think it’s a great film so nothing to feel bad about. I feel it’s a modest film (in approach and execution) so its rewards are modest and definitely YMMV. Can You Ever Forgive Me? and The Diary of a Teenage Girl (both also directed by Marielle Heller) are much better films, for example.
It’s kinda sad to see that if there’s a successful doc or foreign language film, Hollywood feels the need to make a dramatic/English version, which is almost never as good as the original. The Neighbor doc is wonderful and incredibly moving and this film, even at the top of its game, had an impossible task to equal its predecessor.
I haven’t seen it yet, but I was wondering how Tom Hanks was “Best Supporting Actor” at the Golden Globes. Especially since I thought it was about Mr Rogers.
The cynical part of me was like “What, was Best Actor too crowded, so they somehow made Tom Hanks a ‘supporting’ actor?” But I guess if the main character was the reporter, it makes sense.
My guess is the producers thought a movie centered around Mr Rogers himself wouldn’t have enough conflict or drama to hold the audience’s interest for 109 minutes so they framed it around the reporter’s story.
I thought it started a little slow, but I stuck with it because my wife spoke so highly of it. And I am very glad I did. The film casts a spell at times, especially during one uniquely powerful, but quiet, minute in a restaurant scene. I have never experienced something quite like that from a movie, and I have felt many powerful emotions through cinema. It was almost like being hypnotized.
There are other sequences that are a little too pat and conventional to elevate this to my very highest tier, but I still strongly recommend it, call it an A-minus. It was my seventh-favorite movie of 2019.
(For those curious about the rest of my top ten) 1. Marriage Story
2. Once Upon a Time in America
3. Parasite
4. Blinded by the Light
5. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
6. Midway
8. Dark Phoenix
9. I Am Mother
10. Where’d You Go, Bernadette?