The race for the five Best Actor nominations might be the Academy Awards’ toughest race. It seems like Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born) is a lock. There has been some major buzz for a couple of movies that have run in limited release only (Ethan Hawke – First Reformed) and Willem Dafoe (At Eternity’s Gate). Ryan Gosling had a huge push heading into First Man, but that movie was completely underwhelmed with critics and audiences, and his fine performance could be a casualty in this tight year. A new crop of contenders could swoop in for a spot or two (Rami Malek –Bohemian Rhapsody), John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman), Lucas Hedges (Boy Erased). And then there are a couple of oldtimers who turned in a couple of possible final career performances (Clint Eastwood – The Mule) and Robert Redford (The Old Man & the Gun). But I will state, for the record, that one of the men listed above, not named Bradley Cooper, will be knocked out for the career-defining role of Viggo Mortensen (Appaloosa, A History of Violence) in Green Book. We can talk about Mahershala Ali (Moonlight, Hidden Figures) all that we want (and we will). But Green Book is a Mortensen-driven vehicle and a movie that is an absolute must-see. I am a huge Mortensen fan. The Road is one of my all-time favorite movies, and his performance in 2007’s Eastern Promises was absolutely deserving of an Oscar nomination. But I was not a huge fan of 2016’s Captain Fantastic (a film I enjoyed to an extent but had no desire to review). I absolutely thought that the Oscar nomination should have gone to Jake Gyllenhaal (Nocturnal Animals). If, based on the preview, you are worried about Green Book basically being Driving Miss Daisy 2, rest assured that it is not. That, honestly, was my biggest trepidation. And don’t let the PG-13 rating fool you either into thinking that this will be something light-hearted and fun. It pushed the envelope with its language and tone at times. I’m not going to say that this is as dark as the Tom Cruise/ Jamie Foxx 2004 movie Collateral, but it is not designed that way either. While that movie, too, was driven by the performances of its two leads, I don’t think it had nearly as much to say as Green Book did. And I’m also not going to suggest that this movie doesn’t play out exactly as you might expect it to because it absolutely does.
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