Best Pictures #50:
2018 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee
“The world's full of lonely people afraid to make the first
move.”
Green Book checks
all the boxes of an Oscar bait movie: period setting (1960’s), based on a true
story (but maybe not that true), respected/award winning
actors (Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali), a name director (Peter Farrelly),
deals with race (segregation in the American South), characters from different
backgrounds learning from and about each other (but they’re so different!). Specifically,
Green Book is about the friendship
that arises between Tony Vallelonga, a white nightclub bouncer from the Bronx, and
Dr. Don Shirley, a black classical pianist from Midtown Manhattan,
when Tony becomes Don’s driver and bodyguard on a tour through the Jim Crow
South in the 1960’s. Their friendship could make an interesting story but the
approach taken by co-screenwriter Nick Vallelonga (Tony’s real-life son) and
director Peter Farrelly is so familiar as to be dull beyond belief.
Tony Vallelonga, or Tony “Lip” to his friends, is played by Viggo Mortensen in what is without
a doubt his showiest performance. Typically, his performances are so subtle and
without ostentatiousness (even when he is playing a Russian gangster or the
devil), that he disappears into his character and never draws attention to
himself. This is not the case with this working class, unsophisticated, loud,
tough guy bigot. Mortensen hits every note required by his role; there’s just
not a lot to his character. Still, in the tradition of nominating great actors
for their most mediocre roles, the Academy has nominated Mortensen for Best
Actor.
The same goes for Mahershala Ali as Dr. Don Shirley. There
should be a lot for his character to work with: being an educated,
sophisticated, and successful black musician playing high profile venues and
exclusive parties in the Jim Crow South. He is ostensibly the guest of honor at
the private parties of wealthy high society people but they will not let him
use their bathroom. He should be the lead character and we should feel his
inner struggles and emotions beyond him just trying to remain dignified. Instead, Dr. Shirley is a reserved, private, and
lonely person which is a pretty good excuse for a white screenwriter to not have
to get into the head of a black character. All that is required of Don Shirley
is to be serious, refined, dignified, and, most of all, be unamused by Tony’s
shenanigans. Ali won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in Moonlight, and he is nominated for Supporting Actor again, but, as
with Viggo, this is nowhere near his best work. Ali delivers what his
underwritten role requires, but having an actor like him play this part is like
having his character play chopsticks.
Green Book gets
its title from the real-life travel guide published for black motorists during
segregation so they could find a restaurant, gas station, or hotel that would
accept them without trouble. This book is barely used in the movie. You would expect it to play a larger part since it is what the movie is named after. Green Book presents itself
as a story about race and class, but really it is a mismatched buddy road trip
movie. The problem is that is not good at being either. Will the laid back, sloppy guy and the serious, neat guy drive each other crazy? I'll admit I laughed at some of the gags and jokes, but the punchlines are not original.
Mortensen and Ali
work well together but there’s not enough to make their characters or their
relationship feel like something you haven’t seen a dozen times before in other
movies that deal with race and friendship. This is a just a recital not trying to be
anything new. By the time Tony and Don are racing back to New York to make it
home in time for Christmas dinner I had gone giddy from an overdose of clichés.
Will Green Book make you feel good
and provide two hours of inoffensive, unchallenging entertainment? Maybe, but
when you can predict every beat and every scene what’s the point of watching?
Nominees: Jim Burke, Charles B. Wessler, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly and Nick Vallelonga, producers
Director: Peter Farrelly
Screenplay: Nick Vallelonga & Brian Hayes Currie & Peter
Farrelly
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini
Production Companies: Participant Media, DreamWorks Pictures,
Innisfree Pictures, Cinetic Media
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Release Date: November 16th, 2018
Total Nominations: 5, including Best Picture
Other Nominations: Actor-Viggo Mortensen; Supporting Role=Mahershala
Ali; Original Screenplay-Nick Vallelonga, Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly; Editing-Patrick
J. Don Vito
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