I watched “A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood” on Thursday night. I had to watch it again on Friday night, for two reasons. One, I was pretty sure I fall asleep in the middle of it and woke up again at the end. Two, what I remembered of it was resonating with me and I felt like it deserved another viewing.
It turned out that I did fall asleep at a crucial point. I was pretty good for most of the first hour. What I missed was the confrontation at Lloyd’s house between him and his father, and the following reconciliation.
Mr. Rogers played a key role, of course. I loved the gentle, philosophical tone of it. At times it reminded me of the movie Forrest Gump, and not just because Tom Hanks was the star of both. The two movies are the perfect antidote to today’s harsh problems like pandemics, presidential tweets, public shaming, environmental destruction on a global scale.
“Children need to know what to do with their feelings,” and “Children need to know that sometimes adults need help.” Forrest Gump, Lloyd, and indeed all of us struggle to make sense of the challenging times we live in.
I once read a book called the Tao of Pooh, about how the Eastern philosophy was evident in the Winnie the Pooh stories. Well, A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood is kind of like the Tao of Mr. Rogers.
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