GREEN BOOK : Tuesday 29th January 2019.

'GREEN BOOK' which I saw this week is a highly acclaimed comedy drama offering Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written for the screen by Peter Farrelly. The film had its World Premiere showing at the Toronto International Film Festival in September last year, where it won the People's Choice Award, and was released in the US in mid-November. It has received positive Reviews and was selected by the National Board of Review as the best film of 2018, as well as one of the Top 10 by the American Film Institute, and, has so far won 46 awards and a further 87 nominations from around the awards and festival circuit, including five Oscar nods and four BAFTA nods. For some historical context, the film is named after 'The Negro Motorist Green Book', that was published from 1936 through to 1966 and was a guidebook for African-American road trippers written by Victor Hugo Green, to help them find motels and restaurants that would accept them in an age when in America's deep south especially, open and often legally prescribed discrimination against non-whites was widespread. The film has garnered generally positive Reviews and has grossed US$62M from its US$23M production budget so far.

The film opens up in the Copacabana Club, a busy New York nightclub, where Frank 'Tony Lip' Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) is employed as a bouncer, sometime during the early '60's. Tony is a hard working family man of Italian decent who loves his wife dearly and their two young sons. He also smokes heavily, eats a lot, gambles from time to time to supplement his income, and chats non-stop, having gained the nickname Tony Lip when he was a young lad because of his bullshitting prowess. He is pretty well connected in the Italian-American circles around the Bronx where he has lived his entire life, and held in high regard by his employer who calls upon Tony's special set of skills when customers get too boisterous, step over the line and need a heavier hand to help them out the door and onto the street. Tony however, and his other nightclub working colleagues find themselves out of work temporarily when the Club shuts down for major refurbishments in the two months leading up to Christmas. Tony is not too worried about finding work as he is 'flush' at the moment, despite being offered some questionable work assignments by family and friends within his community.

Tony gets wind of a driving job and is invited to an interview with 'Doc' Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) a world-class Jamaican-American jazz pianist and composer, who is about to embark on an eight week concert tour in America's deep southern States in 1962, with a plan to return home by Christmas Eve. The Doc (he earned a Doctorate of Music, Psychology and Liturgical Arts) lives in a plush apartment directly above Carnegie Hall. On the strength of his references Don offers Tony the driving gig on US$100 per week plus expenses, which Tony negotiates up to US$125 plus expenses.

A few days later Don's record company deliver a brand new hire car to his house, together with an explicit set of instructions for Tony to look after Mr. Shirley. They pay Tony half the money up front with the other 50% balance when the pair return home successfully having made each one of Don's tours dates. Tony bids his wife Dolores (Linda Cardellini) and his two lads farewell, and he sets off in convoy with another identical vehicle driven by the two other members of the Don Shirley Trio. Tony swings by Carnegie Hall to collect his Client, load up the car and off they go on their two month road trip of America's Deep South, armed with a copy of the 'Green Book' - a guide for black travellers to find motels, restaurants, and filling stations that would serve coloureds.

And so the long road trip begins, with Tony chatting away, smoking heavily and eating behind the wheel, while Don sits comfortably in the back seat taking in the scenery, trying to read, and enjoy a relaxing journey. Tony and Don initially do not see eye to eye as Tony feels ill at ease in being asked to act in a more refined and dignified manner which is alien to this brash Italian, while Don is disgusted by Tony's eating and smoking habits and constant chatter.

As the tour moves ever onward into the deep southern States, Tony becomes more and more impressed with Don's talent on the piano, and equally more and more appalled by the discriminatory treatment that the very talented concert pianist receives by their hosts and the general public when he is not performing on stage.

One night when staying in a less than desirable hotel for coloured folk, Don takes his leave to find a bar. A group of white men threaten Don's life in a bar and Tony is called by the other two members of the trio to rescue him. Tony successfully faces off against the four would be attackers, and out in the car park he instructs Don not to go out without him for the rest of the tour, as it is too unsafe for him to do so in these parts. Don reluctantly agrees.

Upon leaving New York, Dolores asked Tony to send letters updating her and the boys on his journey, and the experience. Throughout the journey, Tony pens the letters and sends them home. Eventually noticing this, Don intervenes and asks to help. Tony agrees and with Don's help the letters become more sentimental and loving which deeply impact Dolores. Tony learns through idle conversation that Don has a brother whom he has become estranged from. Tony suggests that Don should reach out and get in touch but Don is reluctant, stating that he has become isolated by his demanding professional life and what he has been able to achieve.

At another stopover Don is found in the custody of a pair of local Policemen at a YMCA swimming pool, where he had a gay liaison with a young white man. Tony makes a donation (rather than bribing, because that would be illegal) to the two officers to prevent Don's arrest by utilising some of his quick witted fast paced convincing chatter that earned him his name in the first place. Don is mortified that Tony 'rewarded' the officers for their treatment by offering to purchase the men two brand new suits from a tailor in town that Tony and Don had stopped at earlier in the day. 

Later, the two are arrested after another pair of Police Officers pull them over late at night in the pouring rain while cruising through a sundown town lost. One of the Officers insults Tony who punches him to the ground. While they are locked up in a holding cell, Don asks to call his lawyer, but instead uses the opportunity to use his clout and reach out to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who orders the senior Police Officer in charge personally to release them. Tony is amazed by this turn of events and Don's friends in high places, while Don is humiliated. This results in an argument where Tony angrily considers himself 'blacker' than Don. Having reached his breaking point, Don laments that his wealth and success has prevented him from identifying with people of his own race while his race prevents him from being accepted by white people, making him feel truly isolated and alone in the world.

With the end of the road in sight, the pair pull into Birmingham, Alabama for the final performance of their two month tour. They pull up to a stately looking and grand hotel and are welcomed at the front door by the Hotel Manager like they are royalty. They are escorted through the hotel's back of house areas where Don is shown his 'dressing room' - no more than a broom cupboard just adjacent to the kitchen. Tony is shown to his room and he mentions to Don that he'll meet him in the restaurant for a quick dinner before that night's performance. Tony is suited and booted and already eating when Don arrives. But Don is refused entry by the Maitre 'd into the whites-only restaurant, yet he is good enough to be treated like royalty upon arrival, and good enough to play for the paying white guests, but not good enough to share their dining space. Tony threatens the Hotel Manager and Don refuses to perform.

Checking out earlier than planned and more abruptly, Tony takes Don to get dinner at a predominantly black Blues Bar where Don is encouraged to play the piano used by the house band. He gets the gathered crowd dancing and raises the roof with his Rock & Roll rendition of Little Richard. Afterwards, Tony and Don decide to head back to New York and try to make it home by Christmas Eve seeing as though they made an earlier than planned getaway. As they get further north a snow storm sets in and driving through blizzard conditions, Don eventually takes over driving duty when Tony almost falls asleep at the wheel. They make it in time for Tony's family Christmas Eve get together, to which he invites Don. The latter returns to his apartment above Carnegie Hall but ends up returning to Tony's apartment armed with a bottle of festive Champagne where he is welcomed by everyone. Following a brief moment of silence Dolores gives Don a big hug and whispers her thanks in his ear for helping Tony write his letters.

'Green Book' is a delightful film thanks to the two strong performances of its leads and the obvious chemistry that exists between the pairing, the nuances that Mortensen and Ali imbue their characters with, and the deft touch by Director Peter Farrelly. In many respects this is a road trip film that you have seen countless times before and perhaps most notably in 'Driving Miss Daisy' only this time around its a white man who is the chauffeur, and personal Butler, hired muscle and general problem solver to a black man who is considerably more educated, articulate, sophisticated, detailed, well groomed and well off than his driver. It's a story of how polar opposites attract, both racially and culturally, and while there is the initial friction between the pair, they both ultimately learn from each other, grow to respect each other for their differences and forge a long lasting friendship, and from this too you can reference all the bi-racial buddy cop movies of the '70's, '80's and '90's - think 'Lethal Weapon', '48 Hours', 'Beverly Hills Cop', 'Men In Black' and even 'Pulp Fiction'. This a crowd pleaser of a film that delivers a strong message that is as relevant today as it was back then, and if a little cliched in places, is underpinned by performances from the two leads that deserve all the accolades bestowed upon them, and a Director whose usual stable of adult comedic gross out offerings here takes a back seat and delivers a quieter paced film that is subtle in its comedy offerings underpinned by a dramatic and at times emotional true story.

'Green Book' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-