Review: Green Card (1990)

Directed by: Peter Weir | 103 minutes | drama, comedy, romance | Actors: Gérard Depardieu, Andie MacDowell, Bebe Neuwirth, Gregg Edelman, Robert Prosky, Jessie Keosian, Ethan Phillips, Mary Louise Wilson, Lois Smith, Conrad McLaren, Ronald Guttman, Danny Dennis, Stephen Pearlman, Victoria Boothby, John Spencer, Ann Dowd , Rick Aviles

Brontë has a great love for everything that grows and flourishes. When she finds an apartment with an orangery and a roof terrace in the middle of New York where she can pursue her beloved hobby, she is completely happy. The only problem is that she needs a spouse to qualify for a lease. Brontë lives according to strict principles, but cannot resist the temptation of a marriage of convenience with the unknown Georges Fauré. She knows she is committing a criminal offense, but it is her only option to rent the apartment of her dreams.

Georges is a composer and has had a turbulent life in France. He would like to make a new start in America. Marriage to Brontë is the shortest possible way for him to a valid residence permit. For a routine immigration visit to her home, Brontë drums him up in panic. When one of the officials wants to go to the bathroom, Georges cannot tell him where it is in the apartment. And then there are the friends and family who don’t know about anything.

“Green Card” is a sweet, romantic situation comedy. Not only does Brontë have a steady friend from whom she must hide her marriage to Georges, but she must also keep this secret from her parents and friends. This leads to a lot of funny twists and inventive lies. This necessity is also reinforced by the fact that Brontë Georges considers only a rude farmer and does not want to be seen.

The nicest scene is in which Georges is taken by Brontë’s best friend Lauren (Bebe Neuwirth) for a chic dinner with her parents. When Georges is asked to play his own composition, Brontë looks at him in panic, but the guests do not know where to go. Georges concentrates with his eyes closed and then begins to ram the piano like mad, just as Brontë expected and feared from this uncultivated savage. But while the guests look at each other in bewilderment and Brontë makes himself as small as possible, he starts playing the piano beautifully and it turns out to have been a tease.

“Green Card” is a fun, old-fashioned feel-good movie that is pleasant to watch, starring the gorgeous apartment that everyone would fall in love with and maybe even commit to a marriage of convenience for.