Green Book: Enjoy the Ride Along the Way to Redemption

Movie Review: Green Book (2018)
Version: Library Blue-Ray borrow

Green Book isn't an easy journey, for characters or viewers. It places tough bar bouncer "Tony Lip" Vallelonga (played by Viggo Mortensen) and delicate classical pianist Don Shirley (played by Mahershala Ali) on a long-winding road trip of self-discovery, mostly through the racist southern USA. You'll need thick skin to make it through, but it's worth the journey.

Tony is there because his work at a New York City bar is suspended for a while and it's good to stretch his legs on a long drive. Shirley is there to make a quiet statement. Neither is there for the other, initially, and the tension between the two is palpable as Tony struggles to protect and provide for the man he's signed on to serve, guided only by the Green Book guide for negroes who dare to travel in the segregated Deep South of the early 1960's United States. But as the two learn about each other's lives and the realities of appalling disparities of injustice, and their newfound respect for each other's talents and strengths, they take on the world together and finally become friends.

The picture painted is an ugly one. There is a gritty earthiness to this film that feeds into the reality of the times Green Book exposes. Be prepared for the long haul, because it takes till nearly the end of the film before there will be relief. And that's as it should be, because that's how long the struggle that is the theme of the film has taken.

Mortensen is an underrated actor who often takes on meaty roles, and Green Book is among his meatiest. Ali has been winning accolades for some time for his soulful portrayals in heavy-themed films, and this is among his most sensitive. Together, they make a powerful twosome on the long road to redemption an a subject desperately needing it. If we really pay attention, we enjoy the ride along the way.

Captain Fantastic: Not So Fantastic

Movie Review: Captain Fantastic (2016)
Version: Library Borrow

My wife and I are huge fans of Viggo Mortensen. Some of the movies he has appeared in have been a little strange, but he has also been in some great films  (Lord of the Ring trilogy, Hidalgo, Witness, to name just a few). Captain Fantastic falls in line with the former group, the strange ones. It says something about his strength as an actor that despite the subject matter he was Oscar nominated for the lead role, however.

Mortensen plays Ben, the father of a small group of kids estranged from their mother by illness. All their young lives they have lived off the grid, forced there by their parents' devotion to total honesty and living apart from the dangers of a society too hung up on technology, a divorce from nature, and the greed of capitalism. When the mother was forced into hospitalization by her illness, Ben had become the single parent to boys and girls -- one a teenager becoming ready to explore the world on his own terms -- teaching them how to live by nature's rules while schooling them in everything they might need to know in a modern world. When the mother dies, Ben and his family must cross a divide wider than the outback where they live to realize her last requests to reality, opposed by their mother's bitterly reluctant father. It becomes a mission to Ben and his children, but one they come to realize may cost them their safety and their family.

Most of the cast features minor actors. Only Viggo Mortensen and Frank Langella, who plays the difficult father-in-law, are recognizable talent. But the acting is well done. It's the plot and story line that are strange, making the film not so fantastic. The film opens with one of the younger boys leaping onto a deer and cutting its throat. He is rewarded in a coming-of-age ceremony by eating the deer's fresh heart. Ben explains sex to his youngest daughter as if she were a mature child. When Ben and his kids visit family on the way to the mother's funeral, Ben contradicts the host parents, giving the full details of his wife's health problems in front of the protective host family's children. Ben's family travels by a school bus converted into a travel home but they have limited money, so they fund their trip by stealing, which he excuses by turning it into a game of sticking it to capitalism. When one of the children runs away from their family to be with the grandparents, Ben sends his young daughter into physical danger to climb onto the slick clay-tile roof and enter the home to bring the boy back. While you have to admire the father for his devotion to honesty and search for living close to nature, the journey the family is on is dangerous, and that in the end becomes the reality that Ben and his family find they can't live with.

I like unusual stories, those involving complex and unusual characters played by great actors with deep range. But honestly, I found this film difficult to watch. It was "way out there" on many levels. I can kind of see why Mortensen was nominated for an Oscar, but I have found him more likable in other roles far more suitable for the nomination.

As I've said earlier, I don't like giving lackluster reviews for books or films, but I can't give my wholehearted support to Captain Fantastic. I can see it becoming a cult classic one day. But I can't see recommending it as a top pick of must-see films if you have a list. Let me know if you disagree.