TORONTO – Tom Hanks being a fantastic Fred Rogers? That’s to be expected – “America’s Dad” and all that. What surprises about “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” instead is how much it’s not really about Mr. Rogers.

Directed by Marielle Heller, “A Beautiful Day” (in theaters Nov. 22), which had its world premiere Saturday at Toronto International Film Festival, is presented as an episode of children’s TV favorite “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” with a grinning Hanks strolling in, putting on a sweater, changing his shoes and introducing his young audience to his “new friend.”

That would be Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), a cynical Esquire journalist assigned to do a profile on kids’ icon Fred Rogers for a “hero” issue – which reflects the movie’s source material, a real-life article by Tom Junod – but who himself is holding a deep grudge against a loved one.

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It’s like “The Twilight Zone” if Rod Serling had a much rosier demeanor and a framed “Starry Night” that turned into a TV. (Yes, folks, Picture Picture is back.)

Hanks feels so right in the role from the beginning. There’s a perfect imperfectness that matches the real Rogers, whether you watched him growing up or were introduced through last year’s superb documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” Hanks overshoots his sweater zip-up and smiles as if it might have been on purpose, for fun. And he’s actually quite terrible at putting a tent away. These instances just end up making him even more endearing.

As for the look and feel, Hanks adds some eyebrows and slows down his speaking to portray a man seemingly always calm. His Rogers will emit the occasional “Oh, my” if there’s something particularly revelatory in his conversations with Lloyd, who doesn’t quite believe at first that this TV host is as good a man as he appears to be.

Mostly Hanks is having the best time ever, crashing down on piano keys, singing as Daniel Tiger or throwing out a humble Rogers-ism: “Fame is a four-letter word like tape or zoom or face. What matters is what you do with it."

But, again, this movie isn’t about Rogers himself: He takes a backseat here, which should worry anybody who might face Hanks for a best-supporting-actor Oscar.

"A Beautiful Day" portrays Rogers as a guardian angel of sorts, not pushing Lloyd to do the right thing but using his secret sauce, that relentlessly good heart of his, to ease him down the right path. The film is really about a man finding that his own way, by listening to an elder who teaches him about forgiveness the same way he taught kids for decades about friendship, war, divorce and everything else they might need in their little lives.

This grand episode is also one for us, too, to learn a lesson about forgiveness at a time when we might need it the most. And thankfully, Hanks is just the sort who can deliver that message and have people believe it. It’s still Rogers’ neighborhood and we’re still learning from him.