Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali deliver virtuoso performances in “Green Book,” one of the year’s best films that’s bound to be a major contender during this year’s movie awards season.
Inspired by a true story, Mortensen plays Tony Vallelonga, a tough, Italian-American bouncer at the Copa in New York City in 1962 who finds himself out of work for a couple of months when the club shuts down for repairs. Despite his own prejudices, Tony takes a job driving a Dr. Don Shirley, an African-American concert pianist on a tour that eventually winds into the Deep South, where they’ll confront the worst kind of racism.
Channeling what feels like a character straight out of “Goodfellas,” Mortensen delivers a career performance as Tony while Ali is great as usual as Don in a pair of complex performances that should easily warrant both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations and other industry/critics accolades in the coming months.
The film’s biggest surprise, though, is the direction of Peter Farrelly — one half the Farrelly brothers comedic filmmaking duo — who takes his immense talents into the dramatic realm and creates an incredibly emotional film across the board. As a result, “Green Book” will not only anger you and break your heart, it will make you make you smile, laugh and cry on its way to being an inspiring tale of hope. It’s a brilliant movie.
Lammometer: 9.5 (out of 10)
Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.
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