Driving Mr. Ali

Though it’s directed by one half of the team behind Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary, Peter Farrelly’s first solo feature effort is devoid of any gags based on the discharge of bodily fluids.

The director’s first serious work stars Mahershala Ali (Academy Award winner for best supporting actor in Moonlight) and Viggo Mortensen in a feel-good movie about race relations in America that goes light on the grit and heavy on the sentiment. Based on a true story, it starts off with Tony Lip (Mortensen), an Italian-American bouncer at the Copacabana in the early 1960s who finds himself temporarily without a job while the club is being renovated. He gets a gig as a driver and bodyguard for Dr. Don Shirley (Ali), a black classical pianist who is touring the Deep South.

It’s a road movie, with Tony driving and Don sitting in the back seat. As they venture south, they talk about fried chicken, Chubby Checker and letter-writing. Farrelly is lucky to have these two actors in the car, as there is nothing in the script’s dialogue that is original or surprising. Without them, it would be a slog. At times, even when the movie around them isn’t, the duo is at least fun to watch.

The two use the book of the movie’s title, The Negro Motorist Green Book—a guide offering a listing of safe havens for black travelers in segregated Southern states—to find places where Don can find shelter and eat. The farther south the tour goes, the lousier the accommodations become. A rich man up north, Don is reduced to skeevy rooms and nothing but a bottle of Cutty Sark to get him through the night.

Things get ugly when Don tries to do such mundane things as buy a suit or eat in a restaurant where he’s been hired to play. Tough-guy Tony steps in for his boss during these racially charged episodes, and occasionally cracks a few skulls. As his eyes are opened to the realities of life for Dr. Don, Tony learns lessons about loving people no matter the color of their skin and perhaps about how to drop fewer racial slurs before the credits roll.

However, given how ugly, violent and long America’s racist history has been, this movie plays things way too safe. Farrelly seems to be trying too hard to avoid upsetting people.

That’s not to say it isn’t enjoyable. Mortensen, who has had his share of great dramatic and action roles, gets a chance to show off some comedic timing. And Ali is very good as Don, so good you wish he had a script that matched his portrayal. Also, seamless special effects make it look like he can play a mean piano (Kris Bowers, the film’s score composer, is the piano double).

Green Book is the sort of movie that has Oscar written all over it, but it’s average at best, offering a relatively good time while also feeling quite dated.