green book…

Moira and I battled against the elements this afternoon to see Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book” at the Watershed. The film is based on a true story (and I think the word “based” is important to note as I suspect that it’s been a little ‘hollywood-ised’ to give us all a rosy, feel-good glow!) about a successful, world-class, black jazz pianist, Don Shirley (played by Mahershala Ali), in 1962, who hires Italian-American white man from the Bronx, Tony Lip (played by Viggo Mortensen) to chauffeur him around America’s Deep South.
Shirley is well aware of the troubles he might face in different locations due to his skin colour and, in appointing Lip as chauffeur-cum-protector, he relies of his muscular presence to confront/repel potential trouble-makers.  
The two principal actors are outstanding and the film is both funny and poignant – underlining, as it does, the awfulness of the USA’s attitude towards race and colour (although, as I’d implied earlier, it sometimes came over as trying to reassure a ‘liberal white audience’ who want to feel good about not being racist!).
Strangely, I’d previously seen the trailer and, as a result, had had fairly limited expectations for the film… but I was very wrong.
I’d read an article in The Guardian which claimed that Shirley’s real-life family had reacted “with hurt and anger” and had asserted that there had been no close friendship between the pair (and they also criticised the film-makers for not consulting them).
Anyway, whatever happened or didn’t happen, I REALLY enjoyed the film… and I really enjoyed the relationship between the central characters (which quite surprised me, as I’d rather been ‘put off’ in seeing the brief trailer extracts).
No doubt Oscar awards are entirely possible!
I thoroughly recommend it.