If there was ever going to be an updated Driving Miss Daisy, I'm glad this is it.
The year is 1962 and Tony Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) lives happily as a bouncer in NYC, living in a small apartment with his wife (Linda Cardellini), two sons, and a large Italian family who come and go as they like. When the Copacabana is closed for renovations, Tony looks for work elsewhere; he's booked an interview with famed pianist Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) as his driver on a concert tour through the Midwest and Deep South. "There are gonna be problems," he half-jokes in his interview, before his future employer reveals that Tony was chosen for his skills as a bouncer far more than any driving ability.
Before long, they're on the road, and it's here that the strengths of the lead players blossom. Mortensen and Ali perfectly match each other as unlikely companions who, in turns, build each other up. A few insults fly and lots of casual racism graces the screen, but we see that the two men never actively or deliberately seek to tear each other down. This is the sort of iron-sharpens-iron bromance modern masculinity desperately needs (and, I think, desperately wants). It never sacrifices women to its humor or desires, and barely blinks when one party is discovered to be queer. Caught between two masterful performances by veteran actors, we are swept up in the characters -- if not quite the story -- and delivered to a holy place.
And that's what I think the film is really up to. From its opening scene, the picture glows with what I initially thought was a quasi-nostalgic aura. The sort of good ol' days that some in our society want to go back to and "make great again." While the film does get occasionally dark as the pair traverse Jim Crow-dominated Carolina and Alabama, it never really depicts the horrors of the era. This might be off-putting to some, and arguably rightfully so. After all, thousands of black people were murdered, tormented, ostracized, fired, and, and, and during this period of time, and if this was the only film to depict the history, it would of course present an inadequate view of the whole. But the warmth, I'd argue, is the warmth of its two leading men and the transformative friendship they shared, now shared with us.
Despite what some may see as the film's downfalls -- including the dramatization of the men's relationship, their personal lives, and the realities of Jim Crow America -- it's a film distinctly hard to shake afterward. By the end, it's just one of those earned catharses, a solidly entertaining piece with a lot of heart that bleeds for all the right things. Like La La Land, it might do exceptionally well come awards season simply because it is so entertaining; unlike that lauded picture, though, this one actually draws attention to the problems in our culture rather than ignoring them.
IMDb: Green Book
No comments:
Post a Comment