Green Book (2018)
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Green Book Movie Review
Green Book is a 2018 biographical comedy film directed by Peter Farrelly and starring Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen. It’s surprisingly good.
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“So if I’m not black enough
and if I’m not white enough,
then tell me, Tony, what am I?“
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I actually ended up really liking this film. Yes, it’s Oscar-bait and extremely emotionally manipulative and very populist in its approach, but I still fell to its charms because they are undeniable. ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ was the obvious influence, but this movie trumps that one in terms of the quality. It was definitely mixed with ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’, especially in its ending. That mix led to a very fun movie, but obviously highly unoriginal and lazy.
The biggest reason why this movie works so well lies in its characters and their performers of course. Let’s first talk about the characters. The film has some supporting characters, but it mostly focuses on the two protagonists alone which I always appreciate. Frank Vallelonga is definitely a walking, talking stereotype, but a highly endearing, lovable buffoon, so I really liked him and how he was open-minded and he stood up for his friend.
But Don Shirley is the best part of the movie. This character is actually unexpectedly deep and complex. The addition of him being gay was overly skimmed in my opinion, but otherwise it was emotionally powerful witnessing the clash that he experiences as he isn’t accepted by white people because he’s still black no matter how refined and he isn’t accepted by black people as he “sold them out”. On top of that, he’s gay and he’s alone and lonely. That led to one very tragic, wonderfully written character.
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Viggo Mortensen actually is the better of the two when it comes to the acting. Mahershala Ali is so much better here than he was in his overrated performance in ‘Moonlight’. I liked his calm posture and he sold all of the moving scenes and his frustrations with his friend. But Mortensen entirely sold me out when it comes to him being an Italian and a New Yorker and a redneck. He played the character superbly for laughs and entirely escaped in the role.
Green Book is very funny, unexpectedly so. It’s definitely a comedy and not a drama despite its sometimes moving themes and scenes, but it’s otherwise hilarious in the interactions between one man who’s a refined gentleman and the other who’s a stereotypical redneck. Those interactions between the two are the biggest reason to see the film as they’re universally very enjoyable and in the end the relationship becomes elevated and quite beautiful.
The dialogue is quite good, but I did find many problems with the script. Some of it felt unrealistic as Shirley did not experience enough racism having in mind these are the sixties. Some of it felt rushed such as the character’s homosexuality. And all of it felt entirely predictable, clichéd and obvious from the first to the last scene.
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But the journey itself has a lot of memorable, very enjoyable road trip comedy perks that I always like quite a bit. I bought them as friends which is also important. The direction isn’t great, the runtime is overlong and some scenes are less necessary. But overall, although not deserving of any awards apart from the acting, this is still a very solid, enjoyable movie that is best to be seen with a family.
Green Book is a surprisingly good movie that is ridiculously manipulative in its emotion and predictable and clichéd throughout, but I ultimately fell prey to its charms and ended up really liking it. The script is problematic and very unoriginal (it’s a mix between ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ and ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’), but the characters are very good, especially Don Shirley who’s such a deep, unexpectedly complex creation. I also really liked the characters’ very funny interactions and both performances are so good with Viggo Mortensen stealing the show. In the end, it doesn’t deserve any major awards apart from the acting performances, but it’s still a populist film done right and a great choice for the whole family.
