Green Card is a 1990 film about a fake marriage that eventually becomes real.
7 out of 10 stars. It’s hard to find a real romance film these days, so I find myself going back to the older films. This one shows it’s age, but it’s still very charming.
Bronte Parrish comes from a wealthy New York City family. She donates her time building community parks in disadvantaged neighborhoods and getting her rich friends to donate the money to make it happen. The one place she would love to live is the penthouse apartment in an elite apartment building. That penthouse has an atrium filled with plants. But all residents must be married and Bronte is not.
George Faures is a French composer currently down on his luck and trying to stay in the United States rather than being deported back to France. His student visa has expired and any day now he’ll be deported. Then his friend tells him about Bronte and arranges for the two of them to get married.
From the beginning they each assume that after their sham marriage they’ll never see each other again. Wrong. Immigration actually checks those things. When Immigration comes to question them, Georges slips and says “I always forget that one” revealing that he’s studied the answers to these questions and the marriage is actually fake.
For several weeks they live together trying to get to know each other, memorize each other’s toiletries, music, books, etc. But when the final interview comes Georges screws up again. Then it’s over. Georges confesses in exchange for Bronte to be protected from prosecution. But a magical thing happens; they fall in love.
As George is being taken away for deportation, Bronte promises him she’ll meet him in France.
7 out of 10 stars. I wasn’t a fan of the NYC rich crowd, but I bet it was a pretty accurate picture. As a composer you would imagine George to be a rich, cultured man, but he wasn’t. He had a hard life on the streets of Paris. So there is also a rich girl meets poor boy flavor to the story.
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