Green Book finds
itself an unlikely front-runner in this year’s Best Picture Oscar race. It’s a
remarkable competition because, inasmuch as any kind of comparison is
pointless, this year there isn’t an outstanding candidate. There isn’t really a
film that has swept all before it in the other award competitions.
In the end if Peter Farrelly’s film does win, and
it stands a good chance, it may be down to the fact that even if it’s not the
best picture it’s still one that a lot of Academy voters can put on their
ballot.
Although the initiative begun by Cheryl Boone
Isaacs to diversify the Academy is paying dividends – more than 900 new
invitees this year alone - it is still a work in progress. Even if everyone
they invited accepted, the Academy would still be 69% male and 84% white; the
age profile is also high. It may not be the gerontocracy it once was but the
average age is still around 60.
The accepted wisdom is that there is something of
a schism developing between the new membership and the old membership. The new
members drive the nomination process hence films such as BlackkKlansman, The Favourite, and Roma get on the list, but the traditionalists weigh in on the final
vote and therefore tend to back solid box office fare such as A Star is Born and Green Book.
It’s being suggested that while other choices are
too woke (BlackKlansman, Black Panther),
too odd (The Favourite), too poppy (Bohemian
Rhapsody), or too political (Vice),
Green Book is the Goldilocks option.
It’s a good story, well told, with two cracking performances and voting also
makes you feel good since it is an issue movie.
It’s a well-worn issue. It’s 1962 and Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) is
an unexpectedly unemployed nightclub bouncer and minor wiseguy who takes a job
as driver and de facto bodyguard to pianist Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali). Shirley
is planning a tour through the Southern states which are rife with racism and
bigotry; the title of the film comes from a travel guide for motorists of
colour when driving through the South advising them where they will and won’t
be welcome.
Prejudice soon rears its ugly head. As a white
male of a certain age Tony doesn’t really see the issue, whereas Shirley seems
to deliberately court controversy. Predictably both change for the better in a
well-played, well-constructed entertainment.
The change in attitudes is just enough to convince,
but even so this provides some of the film’s most uncomfortable section; the notion of a
white man ‘educating’ a black man about black culture with soul music and fried
chicken is heavy-handed to say the least. Shirley’s family have challenged the
notion but it’s a shame that they had to; the relationship between the two men
would have been just as compelling and the story would have lost none of its
appeal without it.
It is to their credit that two delicately-judged
performances from the two stars manage to keep the film on track.
Mahershala Ali is a class act and seems nailed on
for another Oscar for his role but the real surprise is Mortensen. He has
followed up his nomination for Captain Fantastic with another nuanced role
which blends comedy with a degree of sensitivity. His relationship with his
wife Dolores (Linda Cardellini), which blossoms under Shirley’s tutelage, is
one of the high spots of the film.
Taking a break from low comedies with his brother,
Peter Farrelly directs with a sense of time and place to give the feel of a
good old-fashioned road movie; rather like Driving
Miss Daisy (1989) in reverse. The film also looks lovely as he and cinematographer
Sean Porter have constructed a colour palette of greens and earth tones which
are lovely on the surface but suggest a corruption underneath.
Whether it wins the Oscar or not – and at this
stage it’s anyone’s guess - for
all the faults of its genre, Green Book
is well worth seeing for the performances alone.
No comments:
Post a Comment