A good film overall with 2 or 3 great moments and references even, a pretty good watch when it is not too desperately trying to make a statement on race relations

Rating: 6/10 (27 February 2019)

"Green Book" is an American movie from 2018 and one of the big players this awards season. So it surprises me a bit that with all the attention it racked up, this film "only" managed five Oscar nominations. Still, it may still be in second position for the Best Picture win (behind Roma) after its massive success at the Golden Globes. And it has Mahershala Ali pretty much safe winning his second Oscar (who'd have thought five years ago) while also being more than an underdog to add another for its screenplay. The man in charge there when it came to adapting this over 2-hour movie was Peter Farrelly and he is also the director. Among others, Farrelly got help with the script from Nick Vallelonga and if you paid only a bit attention during the movie, then you will recognize immediately the last name. Yep he is Tony Lip's son and it is pretty fitting that not just his father appeared in several mob-related movies that are deemed classics today. Anyway, lets not talk about these now, but about this one here. Who would have guessed that the director of Something about Mary and Dumb & Dumber would come up with a movie like this. Actually, if you take a closer look, it is not a huge surprise because the critical reception here has not been as one-sided as you may guess. The subject sure comes in handy for Hollywood these days with the diversity issue still going strong, probably not as strong as at its peak, but still. Yes sometimes, it may seem a bit shallow honestly and I would not put the film anywhere near my favorites of the year, but there are also many good aspects. First of all, it flew by and for a film considerably over 2 hours, that is always a success. Then there's the acting. Everybody really does a good job here and that includes most of all lead actors Mortensen and Ali. Yes, lead actors. There is no way Mahershala Ali is a supporting player. What a ridiculous idea. No story without him, no journey throughout the States, no messages about racism. The film would not have existed without him just like it would not have existed without Mortensen's character. Actually, this is a pretty poor decision and going strongly against everything the film teaches us by putting the Black character in second row and it is even more disappointing to see the Academy really falling for it, most of all because of the character's background and story, but also because of the massive screen time honestly.
Okay, what else was good? Individual scenes. You will recognize them when you see them. One would be when the two recognize immediately how their humor is really different early on. I am talking about the salt joke and the Pittsburgh boobies joke here. One of many fairly funny moments too that are not lacking despite the serious background like everything about the letters. Another would be whom the Black protagonist calls from jail and how Mortensen's character is completely stunned. This is a scene that while it works nicely from the comedy perspective is also fairly crucial drama-wise as Ali explains in the car. Another entertaining scene was the KFC one when we really see the two bonding and joking for the first time. It is also a good scene with a look at perhaps the most intriguing issue of this movie: namely Ali's character being too white for his own and too black for the high society that enjoys his music. He is scared of doing what Black people do. He knows less about Black music than his Italian lower class driver and he eats no food that Blacks usually eat. Instead he drinks a fine wine on his own. To avoid having to play a ballgame with other Blacks, he lies he has a meeting with someone and leaves. He sure belongs nowhere and this story line is where the film really delivers. And opposing who Ali's character is and isn't, there is Mortensen, who faces a very slightly similar fate with being part of the dominating race, but really just at the bottom end of the food chain beating people up for money and making ends meet. He is a simple guy, but a good guy in fact. Do not mistake the fact of what he throws away early on because it was used by Blacks for him being a racist. It is more the general movement that made him do so, what society was like in the 60s back then and also what his buddies were like and these sure do include a handful racists. Had he been really racist, he would not have accepted the job as a driver. The fact that he refuses to clean his boss' shoes has not anything to do with racism either, just with him not wanting to be humiliated in any way. This also becomes obvious in the luggage packing scene where he won't be anybody's servant or butler, just the driver and man who solves problems his very own way. Now as for the police, they sure don't get away in a likable manner here and the final police officer scene with the one not minding the man's color during Christmas time cannot really save it and feels for the sake of it. But good inclusions nonetheless, even if the scene at the indoor swimming pool was not the best, actually the worst probably. An indicator at homosexuality that I don't mind, but it really did feel rushed in and there are no further elaborations. On the contrary, we find out he was married before, so was this one reason why it failed? It is not too important eventually and should have been left out in my opinion. Of course, another good aspect here is that the film is really linked to actually existing people that did share a lifelong friendship following their journey together as we find out right before the closing credits roll in. Overall, a good and interesting movie with a right now obviously very appealing subject to liberal Hollywood. I think this one's worth watching for the two lead performances alone and the pretty nice chemistry they had and who would have thought Mortensen can pull off Italian this well. I don't think many actors would have been as good and gotten the Oscar nomination here being next to a far showier and baitier character (Ali's), but proves again that Mortensen is probably still the number one actor from Scandinavia (well he's American, but has roots there) in 2020, even if I personally like Mikkelsen at least as much. Drifting away now from this film, so it is time to end this review. I give Green Book the expected thumbs-up and positive recommendation. Not an overly enthusiastic one though.