Review the movie of Green Book 2018

Is presenting cliché a film sin? Lately, I often complain about cliches. I think I give the impression that "cliché" is synonymous with "boring". But then the Green Book came to hit me. This is a movie that is so cliche, we can guess where it is headed just by reading the synopsis. We can even guess the ending directly. But this familiarity works brilliantly. One of them is thanks to its success touching our most basic humanity. But more than that, the Green Book cunningly performs the most basic film assignments, namely to entertain.

The film tells the story of two people of different races and social classes, who for one reason or another, are united in one situation. They have opposing personalities. We know that at one point they will fight, then another time, get along again. At another point, they inevitably have to solve the problem together. And before they realize it, it turns out they are already enlightened; found that they were not so different from each other. You're both humans. 

Yes, this sounds like a plot of all films about the friendship between two people who are theoretically incompatible. When you know that both bondings take place via a trip on a Cadillac, where one is a driver and the other is an employer, I understand that you immediately remember driving Miss Daisy. The twist, the one who became a driver this time was white, while his employer was black. And more surprisingly, the story is based on a true story. Nowadays, it's just B, but in the 60s, this was a crazy phenomenon. 

The driver is Tony Vallelonga, played by Viggo Mortensen as an Italian-American cliche that looks like it was taken directly from the film extras The Godfather or Goodfellas. He spoke in accent with a typical Italian mafia. He likes to talk big until he gets the nickname "Tony Lip". He loves smoke ti. And like most Italian descent families, he also loves his wife very much ( Linda Cardellini) and their children. He is temperament and prefers to solve problems with boxing. His job is as a bouncer at a nightclub. 

Because the club was renovated, Tony was forced to idle for a while. But electricity and food accounts for children have never been unemployed. Luckily, Tony got an offer to be a driver for a doctor. The doctor in question is not a real doctor, but a prominent pianist named Dr. Don Shirley ( Mahershala Ali ). The problem is, Don is a black man, and Tony is not very comfortable with that — at the beginning of the film, Tony even throws away the glass used by black mechanics. But yeah what can be done, for the sake of the child and wife, all of them are treated while the cake is right. 

Don is what we might call #horangkayah. The first time we met him, Don sat on a real throne in a luxury apartment right above Carnegie Hall. He is a famous pianist who has appeared before the President twice. He is highly educated, has many languages, and has an elite lifestyle. He had never eaten in a lifetime of KFC, afraid of oily hands he said. Don needed Tony to drive him for two months to go on a tour in the South, maybe all be a bouncer because the South at that time was known to be very racist. The title of the film itself refers to the "Negro Motorist Green Book", a guidebook containing a list of hotels, restaurants, etc. which blacks may visit, which of course Don will use later. 

This film is not socially-aware films on racism now. In fact, the Green Book feels like a very conventional old film in raising the issue. He only gives us a relatively smooth journey, while poking deeper aspects, and perhaps more complex, with minimal doses. Anyway, as long as it's enough to make us know that he is presenting important material. 

Visiting the South is a dangerous thing for black people to do, let alone flamboyant blacks Don. Sometimes Don has to stay in a dilapidated hotel. Want to drink at the bar, instead of a bully. Even at one concert location, he is not allowed to use the bathroom. But this film immediately returned to the surface when the conflict touched a darker realm. He simplified important issues into films with a continuous moral message. 

The film was produced by Peter Farrelly, who once gave us comedy dimmers Dumb and Dumber with his brother, Bobby. You might be surprised how anyone who has ever given us the " Most Annoying Voice of the Universe " has taken on inspirational material like this. But that's how, in his first solo debut, Peter Farrelly successfully presented a solid film that was funny and a little sweet, even though it was playing safely. 

The main charm of this film is witnessing a culture clash between Tony and Don. While traveling from one city to another, they tease each other or talk about the stereotypes of each. But this also makes them know each other better. Therefore, the greatest success of the film comes from the performance and chemistry of the two main actors. It's not just physical appearance, where Mortensen shows her chameleon's ability to transform into a stocky Italian descent or Ali (((seen))) appears convincing playing the piano. Instead, both make their characters escape the caricature trap by giving nuance and sentimentality. Their characterization is indeed cliche, but we seem to feel them as real human beings. 

The enlightenment they get is almost subtle, so we don't realize it at what point they actually begin to change. How this film works together like how we make friends with someone; I don't know when and how I just knew I was familiar with. The Green Book is probably not the most inspiring film this year, but it gives us a little hope. Whether black or white, good people are good people. This film is like a soft wipe on the back that reminds us that we still have empathy.

Movie Trailer

Release: November 21, 2018
Director: Peter Farrelly
Writer: Nick Vallelonga, Peter Farrelly
Cast: Mahershala Ali, Viggo Mortensen, Linda Cardellini, 
Studio: Dreamwork Pictures