Green Book Review

Based on a true story of friendship that conquered adversity and racism in the ‘60s; Green Book follows a tough, hard working, loud mouthed Italian-American Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) who gets hired to drive Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) an African-American classical pianist from New York down through the southern states and back. Tony and Don start off distant from each other like anyone in this time would.

Tony doesn’t really care because it’s just a job for him and his only concern is that he has to be home for Christmas. Although, as the tour progresses their friendship grows and they end up remaining good friends for the rest of their lives. But, will Tony make it back for Christmas?

Everyone now knows that racism is bad and was/is real especially in the ‘60s but Green Book is very eye opening and showed how bad it actually was and used Don’s real life experiences. For example, Don can play piano for the time’s general populous, but isn’t allowed to use the washroom in the house. The film does an excellent showing what life what like back then, but they do it with a funny twist as to not overburden the viewers. They had a fine way, at least to me to convey the type of language used during the time. It was presented as an easy to understand way.

It was very nice to see Viggo playing Tony Lip, his acting skills showed as he played a stereotypical Italian which is such a different role than his legendary time as Aragorn in Lord of the Rings, showing that he can really do anything. Although I personally don’t know much of Mahershala, he has quite an impressive resume and his acting skills showed in the film as well. Their chemistry on screen was great, showing that they both are very skilled and cared about their roles and the meaning behind the film. Green Book was filmed excellently and was easy enough to follow, except that it was kind of hard to tell how much time had passed.

The Conclusion

Green Book is a drama filled comedy that brings light to how bad racism was in the 1960’s. Viggo and Mahershala did an excellent job in the film. Green Book also has strong family ties that fit into the feel of the movie. The film does an excellent job bringing light to and informing the viewers about racism and couldn’t have picked a better time to release to theaters.

Green Book Review at Theater with Standard Viewing
Screening Provided by NBC Universal

Rating Overall: 7.0