I don’t think anyone who made “Green Book” consciously set out on a mission to make white people feel smug and self-congratulatory about race relations, but that’s the end result of watching it. However, there are movies that appeal to one’s better angels, and then there’s ones that pander, and I got sucked in because of the latter - not because of some inherent maliciousness in the pandering, but because of my own thoughtlessness, laziness and socialization. Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali are incredible actors - and they could make fine wine out of Pruno - so once they both began to loosen up and like each other, I started to like them, and to believe in their on-screen friendship. That it also acknowledges the intersectionality of Don’s experiences as a gay black man should not be ignored.About an hour into “Green Book,” I found myself struggling with Stockholm syndrome. But the film doesn’t shy from depicting racism in its ugliness and sadism when it counts. You could certainly argue that its handle on racial politics is simplistic. There’s been a fair few criticisms of Green Book’s somewhat rose-tinted take on the appallingly violent reality of the Jim Crow South. His is not the average black experience in America, but as we later learn, he deliberately chooses to tour more hostile areas of the country, using his position as a celebrated musician for the sake of progress. But Ali, who has always been an incredibly thoughtful actor, coats his performance with a dignity and melancholy. A model of quiet elegance and self-possession, there’s humour to be found in his obsessive-compulsiveness and almost regal particularisms. Mahershala Ali’s Don Shirley is a contrast, in every sense. The central humanistic message is important, necessary and correct.
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