Highly entertaining! 8/10

Rating: 8/10 (23 May 2019)

Review:
What a brilliant film! For such a low budget, and no fancy graphics, this highly entertaining film proves that a good story, and excellent acting, is all you need to produce something special. This reverse "Driving Miss Daisy" type road movie, see's Viggo Mortensen (Tony Lip), playing an Italian bouncer, who is forced to take on a job, to drive a African American pianist to various locations during his eight-week concert tour through the Midwest and Deep South, while the Copacabana nightclub, were he works, is closed for renovations. The eccentric and highly educated classical pianist, Doctor Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), hires Tony on the strength of his references, even though there were several candidates up for the job. As this movie was set during the early 1960's, it's extremely rare that a white man chauffeur's a black man, so they had there ups and downs throughout there tiresome journey. The fact that this film is based on real characters, made it even more of a joy to watch, and the various obstacles that Tony and Don tackled together, made them become closer as friends, even though Tony had a problem with black people at the beginning of the film. For this day and age, the subject matter was extremely relevant, especially with the American president trying his utmost to divide us. From an entertaining point of view, there is enough content to keep you glued to the big screen, which is rare for a movie in this genre. Throughout there journey, Don helps Tony write letters to his wife, correctly spelling and rephrasing passages, which I found touching and emotional in places. Even after the episode in the YMCA pool, which I thought would change the direction of the film, was brilliant because the director chose not to dwell on the matter. The main element that made this movie unique, has to be the excellent performances from the leading actors. Their chemistry on screen was amazing, like Cruise & Hoffman in Rainman, and the director shot the period well, but it's not the type of movie that you can watch time and time again. In real life, Tony Lip and Dr. Donald Shirley remained friends until they died within months of each other in 2013, so you're actually watching a life-long relationship unfold on screen. In all, I highly recommend this movie to all adult movie-goers because it has something for everyone, and you will be left feeling hope and joy. Great!
Round-Up:
This movie was directed by Peter Farrelly, who also brought you Dumb and Dumber in 1994, Kingpin, There's Something About Mary, Me, Myself & Irene, Osmosis Jones, Shallow Hal, Stuck On You, The Perfect Catch, The Heartbreak Kid, Hall Pass, The Three Stooges, which was awful, Movie 43 and Dumb and Dumber To. His change of direction with this film has really paid off because it won the Best Motion Picture of the Year Oscar, along with the Best Original Screenplay and the Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting role for Mahershala Ali. Personally, I thought that Viggo Mortensen deserved the Oscar for Best Actor, but he sadly lost out to Rami Malek for his great performance in Bohemian Rhapsody. For such a highly rated movie, which has won many awards and loved by critics, it still didn't smash the box office like a lot of the weaker movies did, but at least it was recognised by the people in the academy, even though they don't always get it right. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and for a director who has produced more comedic movies than serious drama's, he put together a good script, along with great actors, who brought this true story to the big screen with style.
Budget: $23million
Worldwide Gross: $319million
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Music
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini, Sebastian Maniscalco, Mike Hatton, P.J. Byrne, Joe Cortese and Maggie Nixon. 8/10