It's 2020, will we still be warmed by 100% healing stories?
"A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood", based on the American temple-level host of good people and good deeds, uses 40+ awards and nominations, including the Golden Globe Award nomination for best supporting actor, to tell us, yes, we still need such a simple warmth that does not mix any strong plot, strong conflict, and strong special effects.
"A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" is based on the true events of the famous American TELEVISION host Mr. Rogers (Tom Hanks), telling the story of the healing friendship between Mr. Rogers, who is a childhood spiritual icon of a major man, and the journalist Royd Vogel (Matthew Reese).
——— this involves a small amount of spoilers but does not affect the viewing break———
Who is Mr. Rogers? Known as the father of American children's television, he can be called a perfect saint in the eyes of everyone:
Wearing the same sweater shirt for 33 years, always maintaining the same body shape and smile curve, he was patient and kind to anyone, did not lose his temper and did not preach, he was just a warm and nice neighbor as he said himself.
But is Rogers' show really just such a simple children's show?
One of the interesting things about the film is that it uses the miniature urban model used in Rogers' show as a narrative method.
In the story, many of the city's large panoramas, empty scenes, and exterior scenes are presented with a miniature city model, which is mixed in the narrative of the film and appears in Rogers's program.
It was experienced by the innings in the story, examined by us outside the story, and even at the end there was a plot that put Reud into this mini space.
On the one hand, this narrative constantly breaks the immersion we always want in watching movies.
Let us be reminded again and again that this is a story, and again and again to re-examine the story and characters in the medium of the rich aesthetic style of television,
On the other hand, through the gaze of Lloyd, a character who was initially skeptical of Mr. Rogers, let us examine this seemingly only good show, and find that under the surface of the gentleness, it has never lost its attention to events and society.
The archetypal character, Mr. Rogers himself, once said, "Television has the opportunity to build a true community throughout the country," with war concerns, racial strife, death and survival, hatred and peace.
So Rogers, who sang the theme song to be a good neighbor in the community, didn't just talk about what was true, good, and beautiful, he used his puppet friends to join him, talking about death, talking about divorce, talking about missing children...
"There's something in our hearts that can help us be the best version of ourselves," Rogers said, with that sense of leadership on the path of 33 years of television.
But his job is not to preach beauty, but to let children really know the truth of the world.
Spending a lot of time talking about Mr. Rogers seems a little off the story of our film, after all, this is not a rogers solo biographical film.
But I believe that after understanding what kind of person Mr. Rogers is, we can better understand what the interaction between Rogers and Lloyd means to The Person concerned, And what it means to us as spectators.
Lloyd, a journalist who can be called an angry youth, has a complex family problem, although it is impossible to spoil, we can not describe in detail what kind of ups and downs he experienced in adolescence.
But I believe that such a journalist who is bent on exposing the darkness and ugliness of society, a novice father who has a lot of avoidance and anger towards his original family, must experience inner confusion and urgent growth, which we can understand when we understand this type of film.
Yes, meeting with prejudice, to really understanding, to being infected, saving, and healing life by the other person, Lloyd's attitude toward Mr. Rogers is such a standard three-stage turn.
It is also in the process of trying to take advantage of the magazine's character feature report to explore the dark side of Mr. Rogers, while being confined to the contradictions with his father and personal psychological difficulties, we, the audience, see Rogers's self-difficulty in fact, and the unchanging simple desire to bring "a good day" to the "neighborhood".
Mr. Rogers, the archetype of the character, once said in an interview, "True kindness is to make 'kindness' attractive", and Rogers, both in the story and outside the story, has done this.
He gives the same warm gaze to the audience watching the show, the helpless children, and the confused adults, teaching you to face love, learn to love, and express love.
After the release of "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood", I actually saw some unoptimistic voices, thinking that the story was too chicken soup. But on the one hand, in addition to showing Rogers' holy face, the film also writes about his scars and fears.
On the other hand, this sincere and soothing story is not only warm and healing, but also the reflection of social topics and the expression of adult reason.
There is a scene in the film that impressed me very much, mr. Rogers, who struggled to set up a tent, fiddled with the tent in front of the camera for a long time without success.
When the staff asked him if he wanted to prepare a prop, he waved his hand, saying that he still wanted everyone to see what he did not finish, because the audience needed to understand that "even adults can't always complete a thing as planned."
So I think that after the show is done, the story is filmed, and whether it can get the likes and recognition of every audience should not be the problem that Rogers or the film's creators want to care about. After all, even adults can't do something according to their own plans.
Probably what they want to tell us is to learn to accept the true self and the real feelings, because "no one can really grow up until they accept the real self."