Driven TOGETHER
Comedic journey of mismatched duo results in enlightenment and, surely, Oscar nominations
Green Book
(out of 4) Starring Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini, Dimeter Marinov and Mike Hatton. Written by Peter Farrelly, Nick Vallelonga and Brian Currie. Directed by Peter Farrelly. Opens Friday at the Varsity, expanding wide Nov. 21. 131 minutes. PG PETER HOWELL The year is 1962, the location is the American Deep South and this tale about a racially fraught road trip inspires and delights.
Green Book, a most unlikely Peter Farrelly comedy, was the surprise Audience Award winner of TIFF 2018, where it had its world premiere. Based on a true story, it’s also one of the year’s best films — and a surefire Oscar contender in
multiple categories. It’s a road movie that puts a very odd couple into a Cadillac Coupe de Ville, sending them on a journey of necessity but also of enlightenment. The title refers to a travel guide once used by Black motorists to find shelter and safety during decades of racial segregation enforced by discriminatory Jim Crow laws in southern states.
Don “Doc” Shirley ( Moonlight’s Oscar-winning Mahershala Ali) is a virtuoso concert pianist who is wound so tightly, he knows nothing about Aretha Franklin and Little Richard. He Alives aalone above New York’s Carnegie Hall, in an apartment so stuffed with curios fromahis world travels, it’s more of a museum than a home.
Frank Anthony “Tony Lip” Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) is a fast-talking nightclub bouncer
from an Italian-American neighbourhood in the Bronx. He’s a hustler who rocks ’n’ rolls with his
fists, but he’s also a family man who is trying his best to make ends meet, along with his patient and forbearing wife Dolores (Linda Cardellini).
Naturally, these two polar opposites are going to end up in a car together, with Tony driving Doc
in a southern realm where the times are not a-changin’ very quickly regarding racial attitudes, despite the best efforts of the Kennedy Administration in Washington, D.C. and the civilrights movement everywhere else. Doc and Tony both have something to prove — and to learn, in ways amusing and not. Doc knows he can enjoy a comfortable and lucrative life entertaining northern liberals. He wants to open ears and minds down south. Tony just needs a job, and even though he’s not at all worldly or educated, he’s happy to earn decent money by driving Doc wherever he wants to go. It’s better than working for local mobsters, who figure they could use a guy like Tony.
Doc and Tony climb into a big turquoise Caddy, with the other musicians in the Don Shirley Trio (Dimeter Marinov and Mike Hatton) following behind, and off they go. The trip down south is scheduled to end just before Christmas, if snobby Doc and slobby Tony don’t drive each other crazy before then. Tony explains to an unamused Doc that he got his “Lip” nickname because “I’m the best BS artist in the Bronx.”
It’s a talent he’s going to need, along with his muscle and street smarts, when the rubber hits the racially divided road. But Doc can assist Tony, too, by showing him the virtue of nonviolent protest and by providing needed assistance with romantic letters home to Dolores. Both men discover home truths about the perils of loneliness, the evils of assumptions and the value of family life.
Peter Farrelly has fun with stereotypes but also explodes them, especially the old canard of “polite” racism that is anything but. He’s finally leaving behind the gross-out comedies he made with his brother Bobby, ribald rib-ticklers like Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary. He has also assembled a top-notch team to work with: the cinematography, production design, costumes and props are all steeped in 1960s designs and shades.
Best of all are Ali and Mortensen, superb actors both, and guaranteed Oscar nominees. They create fully realized characters who come to know each other in a way that can be summed up with an Aretha song title: “R.E.S.P.E.C.T.”