«An Extraordinary Friend»: a marshmallow with a twist

Cinema Wednesdays - Jonas Follonier

Despite an avalanche of good feelings, An extraordinary friend currently in cinemas, works like a charm. Primo, because this marshmallow is assumed. Deuzio, because the form of the film is very interesting. Third, because Tom Hanks is a sure thing. Here's an account of a session that blew my mind.

Everything in the film An extraordinary friend currently playing in cinemas, would at first glance scare off anyone with common sense. No doubt if I had watched the trailer before going to the cinema, I might have changed my evening's program. In fact, during the first few minutes of the screening, I wondered if I'd gone to the wrong cinema, still stunned by the obstacle course set up by cinemas with Orwellian forms, barriers, arrows and tape on the floor. For God's sake, the film opened with some corny children's models!

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And then Tom Hanks’ face appears on the screen. I haven't been in the wrong session! And then I realized that what I had taken for an uninteresting nursery rhyme was actually part of the great strength of’An extraordinary friend. In this film, in which Hanks plays the famous (in the USA, not here) children's TV host Fred Rogers, a.k.a. Mr. Rogers, everything is adapted to his show «Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood». In fact, the film becomes the show. Naturally, by going beyond it, transcending it, as any work has the power to do.

A children's film program

The Mr. Rogers set serves as the backdrop for the beginning of the film, the end, the transitions between scenes and, ultimately, the mood throughout. The viewer understands that the film is aimed at his inner child. Incidentally, the story of Mr. Rogers, the former pastor turned star entertainer, is not so much the subject here. Nor is the story of Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), a stereotypical critical journalist, who is commissioned by the magazine's editor-in-chief to write an article on the subject. Esquire an interview with the presenter, and who will be changed by this encounter. The theme is far more prosaic: it's a simple life lesson for all of us, taken as it is, without complexity or detours.

Of course, it's also an opportunity for director Marielle Heller to introduce the world to this strange Mister Rogers, terribly hot-headed but terribly endearing, who won the loyalty of millions of TV viewers from 1968 to 2001. But Mr. Rogers, thanks to Tom Hanks' predictably bluff performance, actually serves as a vehicle for a certain wisdom. What is this wisdom? Accepting our imperfection, knowing how to forgive, being aware that everyone, even our loved ones, can one day commit evil. And that it is therefore all the more difficult, but important, to forgive them.

Beautiful people

Another interesting theme, not often mentioned, is the beauty of celebrities making friends with «simple» people. It's often a great mark of intelligence for someone important to be able to make anyone feel comfortable in their company. Who better than Tom Hanks to render the «inner beauty» of truly great men - the tolerant, the caring, the uplifting, the not content to stand in their own way, aware of the role they have to play in individual destinies? The relationship that develops between Lloyd Vogel and Fred Rogers is brilliantly evocative here.

If that's how the film had been sold to me, I might still not have been motivated to go and see it. You simply have to see it to believe it. So I can only recommend taking the risk and letting yourself be carried away by a feature film that's all piano and delicacy, undoubtedly too dramatic at times in its twists and turns, undoubtedly too naïve in the face of this «hero» who's part and parcel evangelical, but who assumes his childlike outlook, for adults who have all been children. An undeniable success when you consider the novel techniques used to convey this spirit in the film's very form.

Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com

Photo credit: © Praesens-Film