I ran into this review by @gooddream about this movie and based on his reccomendation, I decided to give it a shot. Lately, movies have been meh for me, so I'm always looking out for something that will make me "feel something". In this movie that featured Tom Hanks playing the part of the Late Television Star host named Mr. Rogers, I got a healthy dose of the feels.
The story focuses on the life of a journalist renowned for writing somewhat "angry" pieces of popular personalities for a magazine. He was assigned to interview Mr. Rogers, a project which he reluctantly accepted but of course, true to his reputation, hoped to uncover some dirt.
His time with Mr Rogers ended up being a turning point in his life and in this movie, you get to see how simple act of niceness like listening and accepting people as people, turned out to fix Lloyd's shoddy at best relationship with his aged father.
Mr Rogers isn't so big in this part of the World, so I had to cross reference some aspects of the movie with his Wikipedia page. The movie depicted a simple man presumably loved by almost everyone and despite being such a familiar face, retained an uncanny level of humility, evident in the fact that he used public transport and was accepting of his fault.
Watching the movie struck an emotional nerve that drew a few tears from my eye; particularly the scene where he was spotted in a public train and sang along with the crowd. I know that part is all fiction but the man genuinely didn't see himself as a national treasure and just vibed along with the crowd.
The movie featured a small cast, with Tom Hanks(Mr Rogers) and Mathew Rhys(Lloyd Vogel) featuring heavily. There were also supporting roles from Kelechi Watson(Andrea Vogel) and Chris Cooper(Lloyd's dad). It is not the usual action blockbuster that make a loud bang, so it was a little bit under the radar, but as far as content and acting goes, this was a masterpiece that I enjoyed from start to finish.
Rating: 9/10
