Review of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood is a film that took me by surprise in every way, Tom hanks nailed the role of Mister Rogers showing that he truly deserves his Oscar Nomination, however I was also delightfully surprised by Matthew Rhys who gives a performance that shook me to the core, which is only enhanced by Marielle Heller's excellent direction and Noah Harpster and Michah Fitzerman-Blue's fantastic screenplay. This film felt therapeutic to me, the person that Rhys plays Lloyd Vogel was a character that I resonated with in too many ways. The film to me does an excellent job at showcasing depression and how it can impact relationships, your reputation and the ways we handle it also showcasing how important it is to have someone to talk to when these times are tough and how much that can turn things around. I also really liked the way scenes transitioned as if they were models used in Mister Roger's show, most of the bold decisions used in some sequences in the film I loved however I do not want to spoil them.

On the negative side of things, I thought the score just didn't match the way things were playing out on screen which I thought was quite jarring at times and there were very short spurts of the film being quite slow and some scenes going for longer than what they needed to be.

Overall, A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood is one of the best written films of the year, which is only magnified by the excellent performances, which talk about important topics that I think need to be mentioned more. A moving film that felt deeply personal to me and makes it a film I won't ever forget.