Enjoy the Free Movies In The Park series Wednesdays at sundown at Town Center Park. Bring your lawn chairs, relax and enjoy the show!
This week the movie will be the animated movie “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” on July 7th.
Plot:
In 1998, in the beginning of an episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Mr. Rogers displays a picture board with five doors. Three of the doors are opened to reveal the familiar faces of Lady Aberlin, King Friday, and Mr. McFeely.
The fourth door is opened to reveal the face of Mr. Roger’s troubled new friend, Lloyd Vogel, who has a cut near his nose. Mr. Rogers explains that Lloyd has been hurt, and he is struggling to forgive the one who hurt him. After explaining what forgiveness means, Mr. Rogers leaves to pay Lloyd a visit.
Lloyd Vogel is an Esquire journalist known for his cynical writing style. He attends his sister Lorraine’s wedding, along with his wife, Andrea, and their newborn son, Gavin. During the reception, Lloyd starts a fistfight with his estranged father, Jerry, over memories of Lloyd’s deceased mother Lila, whom Jerry cheated on and abandoned.
Lloyd’s editor assigns him to interview children’s television presenter Fred Rogers for a 400-word article about heroes, but Lloyd feels that the assignment is beneath him. He travels to the WQED studio in Pittsburgh to interview Rogers. Rogers is dismissive of his fame and displays concern for Lloyd’s nose injury.
Lloyd relates to Rogers the issue of his relationship with his father, whose apology and attempt at reconciliation Lloyd has rebuffed. Rogers tells him he has many ways of dealing with anger, such as striking the keys of his piano.
Determined to expose Rogers’ friendly persona as an act, Lloyd watches several episodes of Rogers’ show, but is unable to discern anything. Lloyd interviews Rogers again when he visits New York. During the interview, Rogers dodges Lloyd’s questions and reminisces about raising his two sons. Fred takes out his puppets and asks Lloyd about his childhood rabbit stuffed animal and his father, provoking Lloyd into ending the interview.
Lloyd arrives home to find Jerry and his wife Dorothy talking with Andrea. Lloyd berates Jerry for cheating on his mother Lila, while she was dying of cancer. He orders him to leave, but Jerry suffers a heart attack, and is transported to the hospital.
Lloyd refuses to remain overnight at the hospital with the rest of the family and returns to Pittsburgh to see Rogers. Exhausted, Lloyd collapses on the set of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe and dreams about his repressed childhood trauma.
In his dream, he stumbles into an episode of Rogers’ show about hospitals, finding himself wearing rabbit ears and shrunken to the size of Daniel Striped Tiger and King Friday XIII, while Rogers and Andrea tower over him. Lloyd also dreams about Lila, who urges him to release his anger.
Rogers and his wife, Joanne, bring Lloyd to their home to recuperate. Lloyd and Rogers later go to a restaurant, where Rogers asks Lloyd to spend one minute thinking about the people who “loved him into being,” and encourages him to forgive Jerry. Lloyd apologizes to Andrea for leaving her and Gavin at the hospital and visits Jerry and Dorothy at their home. He learns that Jerry is dying of cardiac stenosis, the reason Jerry attempted to reconnect with Lloyd.
Lloyd forgives Jerry, promises to be a better father to Gavin, and writes an article about Rogers’ impact on his life. Lorraine, her husband Todd, and Rogers visit Jerry. Rogers asks Jerry to pray for him before he departs. Jerry dies shortly after Rogers’ visit and Lloyd’s 10,000-word article, “Can You Say … Hero?” is published as Esquire’s cover story.
At his studio, Rogers finishes the episode he was doing earlier on, opening the fifth and final door on his picture board, revealing a picture of Lloyd happily reunited with his family. As the production ends, Mr. Rogers plays the piano alone, stops, strikes the keys angrily, and resumes playing.
Here Is The Complete Summer 2021 Schedule Of Free Movies:
Movies begin as the sun sets at Town Center Park!
