A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is much better than I expected. I never saw an episode of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood but in February of last year, I did read the book The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King and I learned a lot about the man from that. 

I really didn’t expect Tom Hanks to be able to do Mr. Rogers justice, but I was completely wrong. Hanks embodied Fred Rogers and the film does a wonderful job of telling the story of just what a decent person he was. I also really liked the way the story was told. It wasn’t a biopic of Rogers, it was instead a story of how he helped changed the life of a single person. That does more justice to who Rogers was than a biography could.

See this film because it tells a good story. See this film because it is positive. See this film because it is NOT a shoot-em-up. If you have a heart, you will like it. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is probably the most positive film since It’s a Wonderful Life. 

And no, I wasn’t crying in parts… there was something in my eyes. 🙂

by Chris Doelle

Rating 8 of 10