Buddy movie driven by quest for justice
GREEN BOOK
(12A, 130 mins)
Peter Farrelly
Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali
Director: Stars: CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
(15, 106 mins)
Marielle Heller
Melissa McCarthy, Richard E Grant
Director: Stars: HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: HIDDEN WORLD
(PG, 104 mins)
Dean DeBlois
Jay Baruchel, Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler, Jonah Hill, Kit Harington
Director: Voices:
MEL GIBSON and Danny Glover, Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, Steve Martin and John Candy... the buddy comedy format has treated us to some great double acts over the years. Now we have two more names to add to the list – Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen, perhaps the most unlikely pairing since Turner and Hooch.
Oscar-winner Ali and the twice-nominated Mortensen are probably the last actors you’d expect to see in a comedy from Dumb And Dumber director Peter Farrelly. But they spark off each other beautifully in
the Oscar-nominated true story of an unlikely friendship between cultured pianist Dr Don Shirley (Ali) and tough Bronx bouncer Tony “Lip” Vallelonga (Mortensen).
Moonlight star Ali adds heart and depth to the uptight straight man role. And Mortensen is a revelation. There is nothing on the Dane’s CV to suggest he could raise such big laughs playing a rough Italian American. I’ve heard American actors pull off far less convincing New York accents and English isn’t even his first language.
The plot is a lot less surprising. Here Farrelly adheres to the buddy comedy formula which requires two mismatched characters (usually one strait-laced, one reckless, and one black and one white) to team up for a mission involving some sort of road trip. At first they bicker, then they have a series of mishaps, and finally they discover that they aren’t that different after all. By the final scene, they will be best friends. Throw in a Christmas tree or a Thanksgiving dinner at the end and everyone goes home with a warm fuzzy glow.
Green Book is all of this but a lot more too as Farrelly balances knockabout comedy with a touching and very timely story about
Book, Green
racial and class divides. Shirley has very good reasons for being uptight. It’s 1962 and he has agreed to go on a concert tour of America’s segregated S outhern states, a prospect so dangerous that he must rely on The Negro Motorist Green Book, a real travel guide which told African-Americans which restaurants and hotels they could visit without getting arrested or beaten up.
To bolster the book’s advice, Shirley seeks a minder and a driver. He turns to a loudmouth bouncer who is out of work while the mob-controlled nightclub where he is a doorman is being renovated.
An early scene in Tony’s apartment suggests both men are in for a rough ride. His wife (Linda Cardellini) hands two thirsty black plumbers glasses of water. After they set the empty glasses down in the sink, Tony gingerly drops them into the bin.
Then in his interview for the job, he tells Shirley: “We had two black fellas around for drinks just the other day.” Tony may be racist but he needs the work.
The multi-lingual Shirley has a more complex relationship with America’s racial divides. He’s a talented classical musician who is earning a living playing popular music for mainly white audiences. His success means he can live in a swanky apartment in Manhattan. But white people don’t want to see a black man playing Beethoven so, musically, he’s in the ghetto.
“I’m blacker than you!” shouts Tony after Shirley reveals he has never eaten fried chicken or listened to Little Richard. Slowly, the pair find common ground. As Ali is beaten up, harassed by racist police and mistreated by his supposed fans, a sense of injustice boils up in Tony. Soon his own racial prejudices begin to melt away.
And Shirley begins to notice the humanity in Tony. He gets a crash course in popular culture and adds a sprinkle of poetry to Tony’s love letters to his wife. I had been on this journey plenty of times but the festive finale still packed an emotional punch.
Melissa McCarthy hopes to win a Best Actress Oscar for playing a writer-turnedforger in true story
This comedy drama begins in 1991 with Lee (McCarthy) fired from her day job as a journalist for boozing at her desk and inadvertently telling her boss to “**** off ”.
After her landlord nags her for back rent, she’s drowning her sorrows in a local bar when she meets Jack (Best Supporting Actor nominee Richard E Grant), a flamboyant chancer of no fixed abode. They become drinking companions, bonding over happy news of shared acquaintances who have died or moved to the suburbs.
The pair strike up a business relationship when Lee discovers she has a talent for apeing the style of famous writers. After buying a collection of antique typewriters, she knocks out fake personal letters which Jack helps her tout round local dealers.
There’s a touch of suspense as the plan comes unstuck but it’s McCarthy and Grant who keep us watching. It is a slight film but this pair are fun to hang out with.
TCan You Forgive Me?
HE FIRST How To Train Your Dragon was a bit of an oddity and not just because the Vikings sounded Scottish. This was a hit DreamWorks animation that made no attempt at double-edged gags for parents or smart popculture references. Instead it set about entertaining children of all ages with stunning 3D animation, stirring battles and a heartfelt coming-of-age story. The trilogy comes to a satisfying conclusion in
spectacular adventure where the Glaswegian
Vikings settle their fractious relationship with the flamebreathers.
As Gerard Butler’s dragon-loving chieftain is now in Valhalla, it falls on his son Hiccup, pictured, (again voiced by Jay Baruchel) to save the great beasts from hunters by sending them to a mythical hidden world. Meanwhile, scaly best pal Toothless has fallen for a slinky lady dragon. So, if Hiccup loves Toothless, should he set him free?