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| Source: Imdb |
This story about the unlikely
friendship between an Italian-American and a black musician got off to a bit of
a wonky start. I did not feel at home in this movie at all during the endless
minutes of introducing Viggo Mortensen’s character. But wow, did they take off
after that. The film starts slow, but then gradually develops a warmth and a
very particular kind of texture and flavour that I have not seen in cinema
before. I’m really impressed that this was the second film this year that
finally felt like I was watching something new. Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala
Ali – with the help of the script - developed their characters beautifully. The
jarring imbalance between the almost-mobster and the cultured musician
gradually transforms into a gorgeous balance, with the weight shifting from a
teacher-student or boss-employee kind of relationship to mutual friendship
where the learning goes both ways. It was heart-warming to see them genuinely
win each other over without it seeming forced by the script at all, and how
Viggo’s character takes on his job with such seriousness and earnestness after
the initial reluctance is just so nice to watch. In turn, it is lovely to see
the pianist slowly loosening up and letting someone be his friend, for once,
instead of his servant. It was amazing, too, how the script managed to make
such content seem light-hearted and comedic in front of a backdrop of racial
bigotry. Defying all explanation, this movie was really funny. Amazingly, I
loved the ending on this one as well. I simply knew it would be this way
because Don just driving off felt so jarringly wrong, so I was expecting what
happened next and I was extremely pleased with the outcome. Despite everything,
this was a feel-good movie.
The technical side was handled well, too, though I would not say this was a
visual feast. It felt like it rested mostly on its actors, but that was ok.
These characters deserved to be developed like this.
I would give this a 4/5, though there are other movies with that rating that I would like to re-watch even more.
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