Odd couple go green in the South
Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala ali are superb in director Peter Farrelly’s film Green Book.
The movie, loosely based on a true story, is about an italian-american barman-nightclub fixer known as Tony Lip (Mortensen) who’s hired by a classically trained pianist Donald Shirley (ali) to drive him through the not so welcoming american Deep South in the early Sixties.
Shirley, who’s on the road to perform with his trio, gives Lip a copy of The negro Motorist Green Book, which listed motels, restaurants, snack bars, petrol stations and nightclubs that were welcoming to african-americans.
i simply surrendered to this beautiful film — it’s warm-hearted, but tough. The two men initially eye each other warily, but soon learn to respect each other’s strengths and beliefs.
The picture was shown in Toronto (it goes on release here on February 8) at a time when african-americans, and some people of colour here in the uK, are concerned by what’s known as ‘travelling while black’. That is, you could be going about your everyday business and those in authority will, for some reason, take issue.
i was once asked by a policeman what i was doing outside a nice house in north-West London. Turns out i was simply going home, while black.
Green Book makes it all pretty easy to comprehend. it’s a charming surprise of a film.