Green Book

Synopsis: Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) is a African-American jazz pianist who's about to embark on a concert tour in the Deep South in 1962. In need of a driver Shirley recruits Tony Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen,) a tough-talking Italian-American from the Bronx. Despite their differences, the two men develop a bond while confronting racism and danger in an era of segregation.

Emanating from the Dreamworks studio and with a PG rating, you’d expect Green Book to be an across-the-board top-drawer crowd-pleasing production and that is exactly what it is. It’s got a few laughs, a few tears, a social justice theme and a family Christmas wrap-up.  

There are many strong films from In the Heat of the Night (1967) and Mississippi Burning (1988) to Selma (2014) about racial prejudice in the Deep South of the early 1960s. Green Book belongs at the lighter end of the spectrum, focussing more on the burgeoning odd couple friendship between a white man and his black employer as much as Southern racism per se. Despite its rather anodyne approach it is nevertheless an entertaining film although not one I can see carrying off the Best Picture Oscar for which it has been nominated (as it turned out, it did). That it is based on actual events should spark some interest in the little-known Don Shirley’s jazz-pop music.

Smoothly directed by Peter Farrelly who has come a long way since Dumb and Dumber in 1994 and with a tip-top design team recreating early 1960s fashion, the film rolls along effortlessly only screwing the pooch with an excess of sentimentality in its final moments.

Although Viggo Mortensen, gives a winning performance, with his Scandinavian looks he is an odd choice to play a New York wop his credible Bronx accent and dyed-black hair notwithstanding.  Also somewhat odd is that he has been Oscar-nominated as Best Actor when his co- star Mahershala Ali has only received a Supporting Actor nomination (a trophy which he won in 2016 for his performance in Moonlight and did again here). Not only does the latter spend as much time on screen as Mortensen and even if that actor does the heavy-lifting, as a foil to the latter he is splendid.

With a bouncy pop soundtrack, fabulous retro styling and a heart-warming story, what’s not to like about Green Book (the title refers to a “colored” accommodation guide for blacks travelling in the South at the  time).  It’s not a great movie but it’s an enjoyable one.

 

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