Green Book (2018)

An excellent film with two superb performances.
Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen), real name Frank Vallelonga is a hard-working Bronx Italian. He is not that educated but he does value his wife dearly and just wants to put a roof over his family's heads and food in their stomachs, which is a tall order given his appetite.
After he is forced to take a hiatus from his main job (a bouncer at the Copa), he needs to find a new job. In the end, he takes a job driving a world-famous musician, Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) to his concerts around the mid-west and the deep south. Though he states he won't have working for an African American, he probably isn't the biggest fan of them as only a few days before, two plumbers fixed the sink at his apartment and he put the glasses in the trash after they finished their drinks.
The two form an odd couple sort of relationship as they go on their journey. Sure, Tony is in it for the money but eventually he grows to truly respect the deep talent Don has in spades. He has to rescue Doc (Donald Shirley has no less than three doctorates) from a bar in Louisville, Kentucky and truly doesn't like how the southerns treat him and no one sums that up better than Don himself. The southerns want him so they can appear accepting, but once he's off the stage he's no better than the help. In Raleigh, Don's asked to use the outhouse and when he states that he'd rather not, Tony needs to take him back to his crappy hotel to do his business.
Tony also has to bribe the police in Atlanta after Don is caught having some sort of relationship with a white man. So that was the true reason his marriage didn't work out, not just because he was a traveling musician. Ironically, Tony probably has less of a problem with that than Don's class status. But when Tony is pulled over for having an African American in the car after dark, Don remains calm but Tony punches the cop out.
Almost until the end, Don tolerates the abuse dished out at him until his last show in Birmingham when he cannot join Tony and his trio partners in the restaurant even though he's the guest of honor and they got a Steinway in all the way from Atlanta just for him. And Tony finally turns down some money in exchange for the right thing.
And this film has a happy ending, Tony arrives home in time for Christmas, and Don changes his mind and takes Tony up on his invitation to the sheer delight of Tony's loving wife, Dolores (a great Linda Cardellini, in a small role). If Don hadn't joined them, he would have been all alone in his shiny apartment filled with exotic trinkets. The best line of the film is actually from Tony, "This world's full of lonely people waiting to make the first move." Something did happen between Don and his brother which caused that relationship to break and not repair for unknown reasons, perhaps because of Don's true self. However, that didn't stop Tony and Don for remaining friends until their deaths in 2013, I'm mildly surprised Tony survived that long given his eating habits and chain-smoking but he was loyal to his wife and adored his children so his heart was always in the right place.
This film is anchored by its excellent performances, sure Mortensen is probably twenty years older than Tony should be but you don't feel like any of them are acting, they inhabit their characters which is always so refreshing to see. The script is tight, though the ending is somewhat abrupt. The score is seamlessly blended into the film along with scenery and set designs. You feel like you are in 1962, as the atmosphere is realistic and brilliant. This is without a doubt one of the best films of the year. Grade: A-