Driving Mister Shirley

It’s all too easy to take for granted today that everyone is treated equally with respect regardless of nationality, gender or religious belief in our great democracy, and by the same token forget that things weren’t always like this for certain people in the not-too-distant past.  ‘Green Book,’ the winning entry for Best Picture in this year’s Oscars, reminds us of a shameful chapter of our nation’s cultural history in an era of “Separate but Equal” legalized segregation, de facto discrimination and outright racism through the travelogue of a gifted African-American concert pianist and his rough-around-the-edges Italian-American driver/bodyguard through the southern states in 1962.

 

Directed by the surprising Peter Farrelly (who also co-wrote the screenplay which won a statue for Best Original Screenplay), one-half of the comedy sibling duo who gave us ‘There’s Something About Mary’ (hair gel, anyone?) and ‘Dumb and Dumber,’ ‘Green Book’ is based on the true story of pianist Don Shirley (played by Mahershala Ali) and Tony Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen aka "Aragorn"), as they went on a two-month concert tour through the Deep South in the year of our Lord 1962.  Part buddy odd-couple road-trip comedy, part ‘Driving Miss Daisy,’ GB is as unexpected as it is wonderful, a gem of a movie that challenges our misconceptions—even today—through the experiences, trials and ultimate redemption of two men who couldn’t be more alike even if they couldn’t be any more different (Confused?  You’ll see what I mean after you see this movie).

 

Anchored by bravura performances from Ali, Mortensen and Linda Cardellini (Is it just me, or does she actually look more beautiful with age?), GB is a crowd-pleaser filled with plenty of heart, sincerity and charm.  Far from an indignant “angry” movie about the injustices of the past, GB is more along the lines of ‘Hidden Figures,’ the well-received 2016 movie about unheralded African-American women scientists/mathematicians in NASA during the space agency’s early years.  And like that movie, it is just as relevant today.

Grade: A