A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood

(PG)  ★★★½

Director: Marielle Heller.

Cast: Matthew Rhys, Tom Hanks, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Cooper, Maryann Plunkett, Enrico Colantoni.

"Say it again... to the puppet's face."

In this era of milkshake ducks and #MeToo, Fred Rogers feels like a figure from another dimension. The wholesome, gentle children's TV presenter died in 2003, before the time when cynicism destroyed everything. He lived in an age when being pure and edgeless were still admirable and attainable qualities and not merely covers for something horrible and malignant.

Given the saint-like nature of Mr Rogers (whose TV shows were to Americans as Play School is to Australians), there is only one equally wholesome choice to portray him in this quasi-biopic. And that obvious choice doesn't disappoint. Tom Hanks, deservedly earning his first Oscar nom in 19 years, is the real reason to watch this patchy but well-meaning look at an American cultural icon.

If you're wondering why Hanks' Oscar nomination was for best supporting actor and not best actor, it's because the film is based on a real-life article that in places is as much about the writer as it is Mr Rogers. The film follows award-winning journalist Lloyd Vogel (Rhys) as he tries to pen a short fluff piece on Mr Rogers for Esquire magazine. But Lloyd is grappling with his own troubles and is beset by his own cynicism, which makes him wonder if Mr Rogers really is the saint everyone believes him to be.

If you want an in depth examination of Fred Rogers, you'd be better off watching the acclaimed doco Won't You Be My Neighbour, but for an introductory understanding of his impact, this is a good starting place. Making Mr Rogers a periphery character in this story is a surprisingly neat way to explore what made him so amazing (which is what made the original article so great), although if you find Lloyd Vogel's bitterness hard to take it, it will ruin the movie for you.

The idea of making a movie about Mr Rogers without directly focusing on Mr Rogers is one of those things that probably seemed on paper like it might not work, but it does. Unfortunately, some of the other ideas that maybe seemed like good ones on the page don't succeed.

The biggest example of this is the use of one of Mr Rogers' shows as a framing device, right down to the Rogers' Neighbourhood-style miniatures used instead of exterior establishing shots. It's distracting and hokey, failing to deliver the charm it was intending to conjure. For some reason, this kind of thing only seems to work for people like Wes Anderson, when it draws you further into a world, rather than remind you that you're watching a movie.

Elsewhere though, Heller's direction is solid, managing to find a fascinating mix of normal, weird and mythic in Mr Rogers. A lot of this is thanks to Hanks. Getting the most unhateable actor in America to play one of the most beloved American cultural figures is a home run before you even step up to the plate, but Hanks imbues Fred Rogers with a level of humanity that somehow makes him all the more saintly. Hanks' outstanding turn totally overshadows a solid performance from Rhys, as well as fine support from Cooper and Watson.

Much like Mr Rogers' shows, A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood will seem heartfelt but hokey to modern eyes. But the love of its subject matter shines through, largely due to the kind of performance that only Tom Hanks could deliver.