What a Charming Road Trip with “Green Book”
Genre：Biography/Comedy/Drama
Director：Peter Farrelly
Cast：Viggo Mortensen、Mahershala Ali、Linda Cardellini
Viola's Rating：8.2
With “Black Panther”, “Green Book” and “Roma” received a bunch of nominations for the 91st Academy Awards, some argue that it’s the right time to be so politically correct, while “Green Book” itself is reminding us that when we still acknowledge the difference, there’s still discrimination.
Aiming
for five Oscars, the dramatic, biographical comedy based on the interviews with
the celebrated American jazz composer and pianist Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala
Ali) and Tony “Lip” Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen), Shirley’s bodyguard and
driver during his concert tour in Deep South States in the 1960s. Named after The Negro Motorist Green Book, an annual
guidebook for African-American travelers, “Green Book” paints a picture of how
this working-class Italian-American New York-nightclub bouncer becoming the
driver of an African-American classical pianist on a tour of venues through the
1960s American South and their interaction along the journey. Also, because Tony's
son, Nick Vallelonga, is on the writers’ team, details in the letters Tony
wrote to his wife are of great value, and the feature film is produced from his
point of view.
Similar to “12 Years a Slave”, Dr. Shirley is a well-educated musician, and people at the time, at least in the North, expect that he’s treated according to his social status, but we must not look only at the surface at things, and it takes courage to change people’s hearts.
A good
actor is the character when he acts a part, and when a film gets two, it’s arguably
one worth seeing. With Ali, the Academy-winning actor, and Mortensen, the
three-time nominee, the audience enjoys the bromance and true friendship in an
intimate manner. In “Green Book”, the roles’ attributes are the reverse of Ali’s
Juan in “Moonlight” and Mortensen’s Aragorn in “The Lord of the Rings”. While
Dr. Shirley’s trying to help Tony with his diction and teaching him how to
spruce up himself, Tony keeps Dr. Shirley steering clear of discrimination and
troubles.Unlike “Blindspotting”, which points out the charade directly and sharply, “Green Book” depicts the situation ironically with Dr. Shirley’s calmness, carefulness and how he takes all these for granted, but in a blissful ambience in general.
Maybe there’s prejudice in every one of us, but once we recognize the similarity instead of the difference, the charming road trip is waiting for us to take. More of a lesson “Green Book” brings to moviegoers than mere entertainment.
Picture Credit: IMDb
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