An engaging story that skates across the thin ice of America's 'Jim Crow' era. Whilst the subject matter certainly has room for more weighty treatment than this, 'Green Book' nevertheless delivers in spite of its simplistic 'broad-brush stroke' portrayal of the rampant prejudice of the 1960's.
The redemptive nature of the relationship between the two leads is obvious from the outset but the film contains enough twists to upset the most obvious of expectations. But it is the performances from both Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen that lift it above what might otherwise have been leaning too far towards the 'Jim Crow LIte'.
Mortensen's appears the bigger role: he more obviously to fill the screen with his portrayal of the overweight, uncooth, mouthy Italian American thug Tony Lip (he put on over 3 stone for the role!). But it's Ali whose portrayal of tightly controlled emotion - often in the face of brutality on many levels - who steals the film. Highly recommended.
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