Great or Mediocre, Depending on Your Measure

Rating: 6/10 (21 February 2019)

If you don't care about history and you like superficial characters, there is a very good story here. The ending is lovely. The bond that is built between these two men is very well executed.
However, I'm not fond of revisionist history. Mahershala Ali was too arrogant and not realistic. I MUCH prefer the real Donald Shirley. Why "Hollywoodise" him? By contrast, Mortenson was far more believable as Tony Lip.
The problem for me is that if we keep on lying about the past, we are doomed to repeat the mistakes. You can still make an interesting story without putting Mr Shirley on a pedestal. It made me laugh when the movie preached about being polite and not being able to look past skin colour. That scene summed up Hollywood perfectly. This was the "Oscar" token movie of 2018.
This movie is far better than the Thurgood Marshall movie recently released, however, that's a very low bar to set.
Is this worth watching? If you don't mind unrealistic characters, then this is your movie. It's got a good message and some good heart. It's just not realistic.