Finally, Something Nice: Tom Hanks Playing Mr. Rogers May Save Us All
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood isn’t a movie about Mr. Rogers. It’s a movie about us.
Technically, it’s about Tom Junod, a journalist who profiled Fred Rogers for Esquire in 1998. The resulting article, “Can You Say...Hero?” chronicles the litany of good deeds Junod witnesses Rogers perform throughout the day, often simple acts with seismic effects on the people he encounters. It ends with Rogers asking Junod to pray with him, a moment that changed his life completely: who he was as a journalist, as a father, and as a man.
Matthew Rhys plays Lloyd Vogel, the fictional stand-in for Junod, a writer already fragile from his own cynicism who is nearly broken by his deadbeat father’s attempts to reconnect with him shortly after the birth of his son. Tom Hanks plays Fred Rogers, the minister who became a children’s TV host then beacon of hope for a struggling society, and also the person who saves Lloyd.
It’s a movie about how much Lloyd (and Junod) needed Mr. Rogers at that time in his life. It’s about how much we need Mr. Rogers right now. It’s about how much we need Tom Hanks right now. It’s about how much we need a movie in which Tom Hanks plays Mr. Rogers right now. .....
Technically, it’s about Tom Junod, a journalist who profiled Fred Rogers for Esquire in 1998. The resulting article, “Can You Say...Hero?” chronicles the litany of good deeds Junod witnesses Rogers perform throughout the day, often simple acts with seismic effects on the people he encounters. It ends with Rogers asking Junod to pray with him, a moment that changed his life completely: who he was as a journalist, as a father, and as a man.
Matthew Rhys plays Lloyd Vogel, the fictional stand-in for Junod, a writer already fragile from his own cynicism who is nearly broken by his deadbeat father’s attempts to reconnect with him shortly after the birth of his son. Tom Hanks plays Fred Rogers, the minister who became a children’s TV host then beacon of hope for a struggling society, and also the person who saves Lloyd.
It’s a movie about how much Lloyd (and Junod) needed Mr. Rogers at that time in his life. It’s about how much we need Mr. Rogers right now. It’s about how much we need Tom Hanks right now. It’s about how much we need a movie in which Tom Hanks plays Mr. Rogers right now. .....
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