New York City. Quid pro quo: American Brontë accepts to marry Frenchman Georges for a short fake marriage. He will receive the American Green Card, while she will receive her dream apartment with a big garden which is only leased to couples. However, during a routine interview of two Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) officers, Georges mistakenly calls Brontë "Betty", and thus a new, more elaborate interview is scheduled. Georges and Brontë do not like each other that much, but now have to spend some time actually living together in the apartment and learn more about each other to pass the test. During the second, separate interview, Georges goofs again by forgetting the name of Brontë's face cream, and thus confesses everything. He is about to be deported, but Brontë has fallen in love with him.
Australian director Peter Weir's 4th American film is seemingly his own contemplation about the problems of US immigrants trying to get a chance to start a new chapter in life there, presented in the form of a romantic comedy about an arranged marriage which was supposed to be fake, but where the couple falls in love with each other in the end. "Green Card" is not among Weir's best films: the screenplay is thin and with a rather hard-to-believe motivation of the heroine Brontë (would a woman truly set-up an arranged marriage with a stranger just to get an apartment with a garden? Couldn't she just have asked a friend to pretend, for instance her lover Phil?); Gerard Depardieu (before he went crazy) is good in dramatic moments, but simply has no comic timing; the ending is unsatisfactory; whereas Weir has no more creative lift-offs in directing. Nonetheless, Andie MacDowell is excellent in the leading role as Brontë, sweet and charming, whereas the movie is refreshingly set-up as an intimate, quiet story about two people learning about each other, allowing for subtle emotionality. "Green Card" is simple and humane, staying true to Weir's vision, and offers a good meditation on communication between two different cultures, advocating that good people can be found in every society, despite their differences: a cure for xenophobia and anti-immigration perspectives.
Grade:++
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