Copyright (c) Pedro Sena 1994
FILM TITLE: GREEN CARD DIRECTOR: PETER WEIR ( 1990 ) COUNTRY: USA SUPER FEATURES: Nice casting. Gerard Depardieu and Andy MacDowall.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Typical Peter Weir film. It tells you a story, and gives you an ending which is not satisfying, but forces you to make a decision as to what the characters will or will not do.
I suppose in life, we all need to make those decisions, and more often than not we do not. So the director decides it in a certain direction, and we are left with a decision of our own. How would we have done it?
This is a film about immigration laws in America. And how people think about America. For almost everyone through out this world, that does not have the means to come to America, the chance and choice is more than one can resist, and they will do almost anything to get it done.
Gerard Depardieu is a failed musician who wants to come to America. Because he is rather well known in France, and he has been denied an entry visa before due to a drug related past. He buys a fake passport, and makes his way into New York illegally. There, the hounds take over. It is big business, which also has some connections to the Mafia ( the foreigners are signed to pay the Mafia their first two or three, or ONE month's pay if they find work, or else.) and the only solution is for a marriage that will work. Given the language, and cultural barriers, the chance of these marriages making it, are nill, and the Immigration Department attempts to nail as many of them as they can. Like the film, many stories are made, much cross reference is done, and much acting is also studied, in order to keep the authorities at bay. But the people who are usually involved in these situations are not often intelligent enough, or capable enough to do it. After all they came to America on a dream and a prayer, and their lifetime savings.
Gerard's marriage is arranged to a nice girl, that really does not know what she is getting into. In all reality, she has a rather vacuous relationship going with another guy, whom she has to get rid off in order to keep the authorities off Gerard's back. All's well, and so far so good, as she begins discovering this guy. He impresses an audience of upper class New York'ers with his piano playing and a song ( the film never clarifies whether he is actually a musician or not, he lies so much and has to fess up to the girl later ) that is weird, and could only be appreciated by a snooty audience. But it isn't enough. He is messed up in his head. He has lived the life of a libertine in Paris, and now, if he wants to stay, he needs to give up his old ways in order to make it here. He fails, not on his libertine ways, but on his lack of concentration, another hint that this is the reason why he is not a better musician, or better known as a musician.
As he fails, one of his tests with the immigration officials, he is arrested and then sent back to Paris. And the girl, is left there. Will she go to Paris, now that she likes him, but has no idea of who he is, or where to find him, or is the whole thing just another adolescent flash in the pan relationship, where the girl is the loser. She had gotten rid of her previous boyfriend, and now she loses the one she was just learning to appreciate. Given the unsatisfying conclusion, the answer lies in the adolescent idea.
Depardieu, as the Frenchman, trying to make it to America is good, because he can play himself, and we wouldn't know any better. Andy MacDowall is, however, very nice, and has a certain easiness through out that helps the film along. It is a Peter Weir trademark to have a strong female lead role, carry the story. With the exception of only one of his films ( THE LAST WAVE ) the women usually are the difference between the solution or the lack of one. In this story, she is young, and doesn't know herself well enough, but she has the intelligence to follow through and try to make things work, only when she finds herself finally, attracted to this stranger which has been brought to her life.
And by the way, she will not get paid the $2,000.00 dollars promised at the start, because it didn't work out.
This type of situation is very common in all of the world's major cities, and has been a gray area where many have been caught for the right reasons, and many have gotten away with it for the wrong reasons. The solution is to let people in with open arms. The problem is that this is not really feasible, or viable in any way. The logistics are too dangerous, and not very good.
GOOD FILM FUN TO WATCH FROM A DISTANCE. Two people who can't talk, have to communicate. QUICK PACED. ROMANTIC.
3 GIBLOONS Member of the Internet Movie Critics Association
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