Green Book: Best Picture Review

Synopsis

Green Book follows Tony "Lip" Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen), a Caucasian bouncer at the Copacabana, and Dr. Donald Shirley (Mahershala Ali), an African-American pianist about to embark on a national tour. With Tony as his driver, Don Shirley and Tony Lip go on a tour through the Deep South, facing the hardships that plagued Black people in the 1960s.

Review

The film is adequately written. Peter Farrelly, the director, writer, and producer, does well with the script and actually writes better in Green Book than any of the films he made with his usual production partner, his brother Bobby. However, the film only goes skin deep into dealing with hefty issues in society. To its detriment, the film lily dips into talking about race, homosexuality, and class without trying to make a statement about anything. That, unfortunately, is the fault of Mr. Farrelly. Since he is a comedy writer/director, he is not quite sure how to direct a dramatic story with deep issues at the heart. He is lucky that he was blessed with two of the best performances of the year. Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali (Tony Lip and Dr. Don Shirley, respectively) do such a great job in their roles. Ali presents a very regal, elegant, and nuanced African American character, providing a different look at black people in the 60's from the borderline minstrel characters shown in other films. Mortensen portrays an ignorant and arrogant Italian bouncer that learns that his ways are incorrect. Their chemistry is very apparent and electric, even though the story is very magical-Negro-esque. As an aside, the "green book" from which the film's title comes (actually titled The Negro Motorist Green Book) is not a very integral part of the story. They could've titled the film better.