A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood.

Every time Tom Hanks makes an appearance on a movie screen you can be assured that the said film will have a golden hallmark on it and a vastly lucrative potential on the global circuit. Hanks is one of our most polished, consummate and consistent of Hollywood actors, a comic actor par excellence, richly gifted at any role that comes his way and a master of his craft.

In his current film A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood Hanks hits the jackpot endearingly and brilliantly as the American children's TV presenter who then finds himself unwittingly in the role of charming peacemaker and lovable intermediary in fractured relationships. It is a film that thoroughly lives up to expectations and a movie whose adorable feelgood factor can't  help you from falling in love with the cinema.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood is a majestic film, a masterclass and quite the cleverest movie to roll out of Hollywood for some time. It is a shining masterpiece that is much more than a simple morality tale. It takes you on a joyously meandering journey through human emotions at their tenderest and leaves you with the valuable re-assurance that it'll all turn up for the best if you can just count to ten and hold together all of those wounded feelings that might have been left to fester for too long.

Tom Hanks is the infinitely charming TV presenter Mr Rogers or Fred Rogers whose soft, gentle, warm and wonderfully avuncular persona provides the film with its most easily identifiable character, a man whose warm and friendly manner runs soothingly through the film like a smooth flowing stream. Not for the first time Hanks is stunning as Mr Rogers in the kind of role that was tailor made for him, a man referred to as a saintly figure who would never dream of talking down to young children and then comes across as almost permanently virtuous throughout.

We join Mr Rogers as he introduces us to a picture board in the children's TV programme where he reveals several characters with readily recognisable childlike personalities. There are puppets, elderly kings and, then, in complete contrast, Matthews Rhys as Lloyd Vogel, the hard hitting investigative magazine writer cum slightly cynical journalist who just wants to expose the celebrities in the most realistic light.

On Mr Rogers final picture board figure is Vogel, a man with the bruised ravages of a scar on his forehead. This has been the result of a family wedding bust up where  his wife Susan Kelechi Watson as Andrea with their new born baby, breaks up the fight with a maternal arm around her husband's shoulder. Then there is Vogel's bitter and resentful father Chris Cooper as a superbly hard bitten Jerry while the family struggle to come to terms with petty differences of opinion. It all kicks off when Jerry Vogel becomes embroiled in a nasty punch up with his son and all of the bad blood that comes with that dynamic.

Then we follow the ups and downs, the peaks and troughs of Lloyd Vogel's career from the moment he enters the magazine editor's office to the moment when Vogel comes face to face with Fred Rogers and then confronting his own demons. Initially Vogel is told in no uncertain terms by his editor the no- nonsense Ellen, here played with typical forthrightness by Christine Lahti, to just do as he was told. Ellen demands that Vogel give him a 400 word piece on one of the many American heroes featured in the magazine. Or else.

Now the film gets much deeper under the surface of a children's TV presenter who just wants to paint the world in its most favourable light. Vogel quite literally scratches that surface when invited into the TV studio where Mr Rogers hosts his daily children's show. Scepticism is replaced by insatiable curiosity as Vogel tracks Rogers all over the country before the dawning realisation hits him that there is much more to the naked eye as this admirably positive and upbeat story telling uncle continues his crusade of good messages to young children.

Slowly but surely Jerry Vogel digs deep into the flawless character who is Mr Rogers and discovers much more than he thought he'd find. In a number of the film's memorable scenes Rogers calmly passes on some delightful advice on life, several meaningful words about his broken relationship with Vogel's father and fatherly words of encouragement when it all looked as if Vogel's life was falling apart.

In another outstanding cameo where Vogel rushes from the hospital bed where his dying father lies. Vogel is transported hilariously into a mock up of a hospital in Mr Rogers TV studio. In one of the many highlights of the film Hanks proceeds gloriously to explain to Vogel that hospitals are where sick and ill people come to when they're not feeling well. Yes, Rogers tells his journalist friend, hospitals are nice places where nice people have to go to if they were in pain or hurt.

After refusing to see his father in his sick bed, Vogel flees back to look for Mr Rogers and then is gently lectured once again as if he ever needed any more sharp reminders about families, supportive families and the realities of life that he has to come to terms with. Along with his father's new partner, Vogel's father Jerry lies on his death bed, sharing beery, manly confidences and a partial reconciliation is completed.

Finally when all of the family are gathered to discuss and analyse Vogel's now full length 10.000 word feature article on Mr Rogers, the film ties up all the loose ends with almost poetic perfection. Vogel's brother and sister in law are re-united again with a family get together including pizza and jokey banter.

And so it is that our lovely man Fred Rogers with the bright red cardigan and easy going manner reels out some more homespun philosophies. The puppets in the TV studio come to life, nodding sagely and heartwarmingly at Vogel as if Rogers has to be told that there's nothing wrong in making rash decisions. We're all human after all and Vogel is just as emotionally vulnerable as the rest of us.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood is one of those true stories that should be told to everybody. The one minute of silence where Rogers is gently coaxed into venting his true feelings. This is one of those films where, on leaving the cinema, you will walk away from the big screen with the warmest glow in your heart all the while recognising that they still make gorgeous films such as this one. You feel sure that there is a place for compassion in the world wherever we go in life. It's not too late. You have to see this film. It's a laugh a minute.