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What a gift Marielle Heller is to movie characters. She takes a script and puts people on screen and shines a warm and understanding light on them for the audience. Last year, she gave us a non-judgmental approach to Lee Israel in "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" and now she takes another unconventional look at real life characters with "A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood."

Viewers should be warned a bit, without giving much away: "A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood" features Fred Rogers, but it isn't a biopic about the beloved children's icon. The movie is from the perspective of Lloyd (Matthew Rhys, "The Post"), who is assigned to profile Mister Rogers (Tom Hanks) for Esquire magazine. Lloyd is annoyed by the assignment because he isn't interested in writing fluff pieces, and is even put off by Mister Rogers' calming presence. As the movie goes on, he becomes much more interested in what Mister Rogers has to offer.

"A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood" is about an eventual friendship that grows, but moreover, it's about finding the right person at the right time in one's life. The movie succeeds by never feeling cloying or pandering. Like Mister Rogers himself, the movie offers a warm and comforting spirit, and allows the characters to see the world through a different lens.

Rhys is strong as Lloyd, running the gamut of perpetually irritated and close-minded but with the ability to change. His relationship with his father (played by Chris Cooper, "Live By Night") is fractured and there is an undercurrent of anger running through Lloyd's storyline. Heller, working with the screenplay by Micha Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, finds a way to balance Lloyd's frustrations with Mister Rogers's genteel personality.

Hanks wears the red cardigan and grey hair but doesn't ever look much like Mister Rogers, and it's why his performance works so well within the movie. He captures the soft and slow cadence of Mister Rogers but never tries to do an impersonation. Mister Rogers often felt like someone otherworldly and too good to be true. Hanks' performance finds the juxtaposition of mystique and everyman quality of Mister Rogers, which allows his spirit to come alive on screen.

The way Heller and the writers frame the film is unconventional, and it allows "A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood" to surprise with every creative choice that is made. There might be a few too many speeches along the way but nothing can take away from the film being exactly what it needs to be. We said it last year with the documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" and it applies this year with Heller's film: the world needs Mister Rogers.