I'm still grumpy over the documentary about Fred Rogers, WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? Not even being nominated for best documentary, but I chose to see this movie anyway. It stars Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers. The story is based on an ESQUIRE article by Tom Junod called "Can You Say 'Hero'?" in which the usually expose-writing writer is told to interview Fred Rogers. Matt Rhys, who plays the writer, finds the affair....unsettling. He's looking to rip the amiable mask off the fellow, but finds him a quiet, sharp man who seems to have done his own research on the writer and picks, picks, picks at the fellow until he winkles out his issues. He quietly denies being a saint, admits to being an imperfect parent, who, his wife notes, has a terrible temper. Everyone, however, is incredibly vague and protective. Rhys keeps trying to find the joint between the public mask and the face beneath, and winds up learning a lot about himself.
The choices of what to leave out are interesting. Fred Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister who used the TV show as a non-denominational pulpit to address children and their issues. He was the most unlikely of TV stars and his show was filmed in the most awkward of manners, yet parents knew that their children were safe with him, even as he expressed his love for everyone and discussed disturbing subjects.
This is best summed up in the sequence where Rhys is asked to meet Rogers in New York. They take the subway to his Manhattan apartment, and are serenaded by his theme song by a carful of children, Black teenagers, cops and young adults.
Hanks gives a fascinating performance. He lets you see that Mr. Rogers is indeed a public mask that he never lets slip... when anyone else is around. The way he slips around the interviewer's question to question the interviewer, shows at once a great intelligence, real concern for his fellow human being, and fear of something dark within himself.
The choices of what to leave out are interesting. Fred Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister who used the TV show as a non-denominational pulpit to address children and their issues. He was the most unlikely of TV stars and his show was filmed in the most awkward of manners, yet parents knew that their children were safe with him, even as he expressed his love for everyone and discussed disturbing subjects.
This is best summed up in the sequence where Rhys is asked to meet Rogers in New York. They take the subway to his Manhattan apartment, and are serenaded by his theme song by a carful of children, Black teenagers, cops and young adults.
Hanks gives a fascinating performance. He lets you see that Mr. Rogers is indeed a public mask that he never lets slip... when anyone else is around. The way he slips around the interviewer's question to question the interviewer, shows at once a great intelligence, real concern for his fellow human being, and fear of something dark within himself.