Early on in “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” Andrea Vogel (Susan Kelechi Watson) learns her husband, Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), is going to profile Fred Rogers for Esquire magazine, and she gives him a warning: “Please don’t ruin my childhood.”
It’s a fear the audience shares as director Marielle Heller begins this loving biographical drama, when she first reveals a version of the “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” opening, with its diorama of a suburban neighborhood. But then the door opens, and Tom Hanks enters as Mr. Rogers, one national treasure portraying another, and our fear dissipates.
With Hanks here, we think, everything will be all right — just as we thought when we saw Rogers, always reassuring us that he liked us just the way we are.