Movie Review: Green Book

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland

Michael's Movie Grade: B+


Review: Excellent movie.

This is a movie about two people who strike a unique and powerful friendship that causes each to learn more about the other and grow as people. A movie like this is almost completely dependent how much we believe this friendship. The great thing is that this movie makes us believe it completely. Tony (Viggo Mortensen) is foulmouthed and not exactly one who would fit into high society, while Dr. Shirley (Mahershala Ali) has a very refined and classy way of presenting himself. However each has something important to learn from the other and this effects both their lives profoundly. We see the two go from having little to talk about to the two understanding perfectly that the other person wasn't the way they originally thought they were. We truly see this friendship grow over the course of the movie, in a gradual and natural way. There is no exact moment in which this happens and because of this when we see one standing up for the other, we completely believe and accept this. Adding to this is two powerhouse performances from the actors. The two have fantastic chemistry with each other and it is just a joy watching them share the screen.


This movie also benefits from some really funny humor. Scenes like them sharing fried chicken and Tony's original attempts at letters as well as just much of the banter between the main characters help make this film laugh out loud funny. I don't think there is a joke in this movie that doesn't work. Adding to this is that the humor is such a part of the characters it makes us believe them even more (I know this based off a true story, but again how many based on a true story movie are their where the main characters still don't feel real).

The easiest complaint to launch against this movie is that you can always tell what is going to happen next. This movie is full of cliché plot points (I know this is based off a true story, but I am sure dramatic license was taken in at least some of these scenes) and there is little here that hasn't been done before. The story is still a good one though and the emotional moments still hit quite well. We care about the characters in a way we don't in a lot of similar movies and because of this we can still get involved with them emotionally. Overall any predictability in this movie is overcome by the film's pure undeniable charm.

By the way one of the co-writers on this movie was Nick Vallelonga who is the son of the real life Tony.

-Michael J. Ruhland