Green Book (2018)

GREEN BOOK  (2018)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Peter Farrelly
    Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini, 
    Sebastian Maniscalco, Mike Hatton, Joe Cortese
It'a not hard to see how Viggo Mortensen bulked up for his role in "Green Book". Playing nightclub bouncer Tony Vallelonga (aka "Tony Lip"), he practically never stops eating, except when he's smoking or beating somebody up, and he often eats and smokes simultaneously. It's 1962, and Tony, temporarily unemployed when the Copa closes for repairs, hires on as the driver and de facto bodyguard for Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), a black pianist whose upcoming concert tour includes several dates in the Deep South. All the stuff you'd except to happen, does. The street-wise Tony and the cultured Doc are at odds starting out, but bond over time as they learn more about each other. They're both fish out of water in the South. Racism comes into play, and Tony's forceful way of handling things doesn't always help. Doc helps Tony write intelligible letters to his wife back in the Bronx. Tony introduces the classically trained Doc to Aretha Franklin and Little Richard. It's all resolved in a way that feels a little too good to be true, and the movie leans noticeably more in the direction of Tony's story than Doc's. (Nick Vallelonga, the real-life Tony's son, was one of the writers.) But as long as Mortensen and Ali are sharing the screen, you've got a road movie that's worth the trip. And if you want to study Viggo's technique for devouring a whole large pizza, you can do that, too.