Movie Review: At Least the Controversial "Green Book" Brings Us More Mahershala Ali

Here’s why Green Book has become a lightning rod for controversy.

What does it mean to tell a true story all wrong? Does it mean mangling the timeline? Mischaracterising the subjects? Or committing the cardinal sin of failing to entertain?

Green Book, from director Peter Farrelly, isn’t especially guilty of the above compared to most biopics, and is actually very entertaining. However, his picture, "inspired by a true friendship" as the posters proclaim, does tell a true story wrong: specifically, by telling it from the wrong perspective.

The flick recalls a time in the 1960s when acclaimed pianist Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) recruited a big-mouthed Bronx bouncer named Tony Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) to drive him to his tour destinations in America’s Deep South. Obviously, as a black man, Dr. Shirley expects trouble. Fact is, the reason he wants to bring his dignified act to former plantations and its racist white patrons is to change their hearts. Needing the money, Tony takes the gig, despite having his own prejudices to overcome. A buddy comedy is born.

Green Book takes its title from "The Negro Motorist Green Book", a guide that explained which lodgings were friendly to black people travelling across the States at the time. I wasn’t previously familiar with 'the Green Book', or Dr. Don Shirley. I am now, and for that I’m grateful.

But here’s the thing: Hollywood has only deemed Shirley’s story worth telling through the lens of the Italian-American Tony, in a script partly penned by his son Nick. This is a fascinating tale about a fascinating man on a fascinating journey, yet Farrelly and his co-writers (Nick Vallelonga and Brian Hayes Currie) frame the climax around getting Tony home to his family by Christmas.

Remember, there is no other major film telling Shirley’s story. On-screen and off (especially off), Green Book exposes how privilege is exercised: a white screenwriter made his story the prism through which people discover Don Shirley. The frustration and rage being expressed towards an otherwise milquetoast, agreeable movie is understandable, because of the systemic issue at its heart that continues to go unaddressed.

In the filmmakers' telling, Dr. Shirley acknowledges that he has to abide society’s microagressions (and its macroaggressions) to enjoy a career. Ali can probably appreciate the struggle. Oh, you better believe he delivers an understated, calibrated and profound performance here, up-pitching his voice subtly and smoothly. He just has to do it while playing second fiddle to Mortensen, who’s screaming every line to the back of the theatre at "I’M WALKIN’ HERE" decibels.

There are standalone moments that work beautifully, almost exclusively thanks to Ali; like Don turning down Tony’s offer to put makeup on a bruise left by a police officer, followed by a short scene in which he applies makeup himself, suggesting Dr. Shirley knows the drill.

And it’s hard to argue against Green Book’s well-meaning nature, as it broadly declares that, y’know, racism is bad. I worried it would let the more insidious and underhanded racism off the hook, like when Tony dehumanises Dr. Shirley for not knowing black singers, or for not eating fried chicken. But Ali delivers a powerful monologue that conveys how his character lives between margins Tony can’t understand. Viewers who come to Green Book hoping to look down on explicitly evil racists without getting called out for their own political incorrectness won't totally find absolution here.

Green Book may misguidedly center on the chauffeur played by Mortensen—almost fatally so—but as a Mahershala Ali (and Don Shirley) delivery system, it gets the job done.

3/5

In Australian cinemas 24 January. Rated M for coarse language.