Green Card is a 1990 romantic comedy film directed by Peter Weir, starring Andie MacDowell and Gérard Depardieu.
Georges (Depardieu) is a Frenchman hoping to get a Permanent Resident Card—in common parlance, a "green card"—allowing him to live in the United States. Brontë (MacDowell), is a brash American woman hoping to get an apartment, but the co-op board of the apartment building is accepting only married couples, not singles. They band together for mutual convenience and make a show marriage. The two dislike each other immediately, but with the Immigration authorities closing in, they must pull together to make their marriage act seem believable. As is typical of Romantic Comedies, the two overcome their differences and begin to fall in love, leading to an atypical ending for the format...
Bebe Neuwirth plays Brontë's best friend Lauren, who is attracted to Georges.
This film provides examples of the following tropes:
- Bittersweet Ending: Atypical for the format and is semi famous for it. Georges' green card application is rejected. With his deportation to France imminent, George says that he'll write her every day, with the same question:Georges: When are you coming, cherie?
- Book Ends: The film begins and ends in the same African-themed diner. Georges and Brontë rendezvous there at the beginning before getting married, and part there at the end.
- Citizenship Marriage: The whole plot, and Georges' motivation for the scheme—marrying Brontë will allow him to get a green card and avoid deportation.
- Gray Rain of Depression: Brontë sits in her kitchen and watches the rain pour, as she thinks she and Georges have parted ways (she does not know he is being deported).
- Hollywood Law:
- Immigration is not going to come to your house to scope you out, nor will they interview your neighbors, nor will they expect you to know minutiae like your partner's choice of face cream. In fact, for Rule of Drama, the movie in general greatly overestimates the difficulty of obtaining a green card in this situation.note
- At the same time, however, the movie omits an easy check that INS absolutely would do. Georges and Bronte come up with a cockamamie story, explaining away Georges' extended absence by him being on safari in Africa. The problem is that this cover story would be exploded by simply checking Georges' passport, which a Real Life INS officer absolutely would do at the interview. Georges' passport obviously would not have any entry or exit stamps to anywhere in Africa.
- Leg Focus: As both Brontë and Georges are separately getting undressed for bed and the air is thick with sexual tension, she sticks out a long leg and peels off some hose.
- Toplessness from the Back follows before Brontë gets into pajamas.
- Marriage Before Romance: Brontë and Georges join in a sham marriage to get a green card to the US and a good apartment. They can't stand each other, and are hunted by the INS, before they realise they love each other.
- Meaningful Echo: When writing his absurd fake love letter from Africa to Brontë, Georges ends it by saying that he will ask her every day, "When are you coming, cherie?" At the end as they are tearfully parting, he says "I write every day. And the letters will will always say the same thing. 'When are you coming, cherie?'" He is, of course, inviting her to come live with him in France.
- Meet Cute: An engineered one, as Brontë and Georges are introduced so they can get hitched in a marriage of convenience.
- Miniature Senior Citizens: Brontë has a neighbor, Mrs. Bird, who is maybe four feet tall. She's a cranky old lady who complains about the INS coming by to interview her about Georges and Brontë.
- Odd Couple: The film's premise. Brontë is a rather uptight, persnickety woman, while Georges is a bluff, boisterious man.
- Romantic Fake–Real Turn: Georges and Brontë. They pretend to be in love so he can get a green card, but naturally, they fall in love for real.
- Rom Com Job: Georges is a composer. Brontë is a gardener/landscape artist who specializes in making over barren, rubble-strewn bits of urban decay into green spaces.
- Saying Too Much: How Georges blows the interview and winds up getting deported. Georges, supposedly proving that he knows Brontë, rattles all kinds of info like exactly how tall she is and what color her tooth brush is. Gorsky from INS asks what brand of face cream Brontë uses. Georges gets this wrong (or rather, he gets it right and doubts himself and then gets it wrong). Then he absent-mindedly mutters to himself "That's the only answer I keep forgetting." Gorsky picks up on this immediately, gives him a hard look, and says "You remember all the other answers?" And with that the jig is up and Georges confesses.
- Single-Issue Landlord: Why Brontë wants in on the scheme. She can only get the apartment she badly wants if she's married.
- Straw Vegetarian: To make the audience root for Brontë and Georges, her boyfriend Phil has to be a Romantic False Lead. So Phil's made out to be annoying and pretentious by making him a vegetarian who is extremely snooty about it. When Phil says he doesn't eat meat a surprised Georges says "Why?" Later, when Georges is throwing Phil out of Brontë's apartment he yells "I do not like vegetarians!"
- Title Drop: A couple of times, like when Gorsky the INS guy mentions "illegal aliens marrying for residency status and a green card."
- Voiceover Letter: Actually read out loud, as Brontë and Georges write out fake love letters that they supposedly sent each other while he was in Africa.
- Wedding Ring Removal: For much of the film Brontë is doing this routinely, putting on the ring for, say, meeting an INS official, while taking it off while she is going about her daily business. In fact it's her putting the ring back on at the end that shows she's committing to the marriage.
