Highly Overrated But Still Good

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

What's so great about this movie? Most people dismiss Green Card as just another "romantic chick-flick comedy", but it's FAR more than that. While not a "message movie", it's actually a light commentary on the institution of marriage, and what makes it work.It starts with a premise that everyone can recognize: two people who can barely stand each other must put aside their differences for a greater good. The actual wedding (and its attendant emotions) is carefully avoided, only to drop us into the lives of our protagonists as they are suddenly forced to make their marriage of convenience appear real. Only when they do the hard work to make it real, does it actually become real: the emotions experienced are the result of the commitment, not the motivation for the commitment. In other words, if "luck is the residue of design", then love is the residue of commitment.This is not to imply that the movie is perfect, but it does hold up very well after all these years. Yes, the clothes are very much of their time and there are a few "groanable moments", but for the most part I see no reason why people not born when the movie was written and filmed shouldn't be able to relate to the story and understand what the producers were "getting at".With beautiful scenery and an outstanding cast, this movie was also very nearly prophetic in anticipating all the "singles in the city" movies and TV shows of the 1990s (of which Friends is the most famous example). Which is not to say that Green Card was the only movie of its time with those qualities, but merely IMHO the most exemplary. Would there be a Hallmark Channel today without movies like Green Card?

Maverick Filmmaker Peter Weir's 'Green Card' is A Great Entertainer, that mixes Humor & Romance, Efficently. Also, the Performances by its Protagonists are charming! 'Green Card' Synopsis: A man wanting to stay in the US enters into a marriage of convenience, but it turns into more than that.Peter Weir is a SUPEMELY Talented Storyteller, he's made Fantastic Films throughout his thriving career & 'Green Card' is Amongst his Most Accomplished Works to date. As mentioned before, A Great Entertainer, that mixes Humor & Romance, Efficiently! Weir's Oscar-Nominated Original Screenplay is delightful, so is his Direction. Cinematography, Editing & Art Design, are passable.Performance-Wise: Gérard Depardieu & Andie MacDowell deliver Charming Performances. Both of the talented actors also share a Striking On-Screen Chemistry from Start to End.On the whole, 'Green Card' is a must watch.

A marriage of convenience to New York environmental activist Brontë (Andie MacDowell) gets French waiter Georges (Gérard Depardieu) a green card to work in America. Brontë gets a sort of "green card" too, in the form of permission to rent an apartment with a rooftop greenhouse. In fact, the colour green is in almost every scene: an emerald green lamp, a nicely placed green wine bottle in several shots, Brontë's clothes, and of course, plants, which appear in pretty much every interior shot –the apartment, a friend's house, restaurants. The exception is Brontë's bedroom (where she's always alone), which is desert colours. This is a very interior movie, and I love how Weir focuses on little details –feet coming down the stairs, the peephole in the front door, water dripping from leaves in the greenhouse –to make the closed spaces interesting. The first time we see Georges and Brontë together, they are saying goodbye on the steps of the courthouse after tying the knot. Suspicion from Immigration agents forces the pair to try proving they have a real marriage. They quickly find that they can't stand each other. But the circumstances force them to spend time learning the details of each other's radically different lives, and then repeat them to the Immigration officials in tones of love and admiration, in order to sound like they are mad for each other. Eventually it has an unexpected effect. The point is that acting and speaking like you love someone can actually bring about what it pretends. I think that's true, even though it goes against conventional ideas of being "genuine", which can simply be an excuse for rudeness. This serious theme is mixed with several situations drawn from the comedy of errors handbook. Green Card has one of the funniest scenes of all time, in my opinion, in which Georges must find a way to convince a room full of New York society people that he's an accomplished musical composer. The laughter is generated by the kind of tension between straight-lacedness and mayhem of a Marx Brothers routine. Bebe Neuwirth as Brontë's friend Lauren is wonderful, nothing remotely like her Lilith character in Cheers, and her reaction to Georges in the musical episode makes the scene even more hilarious.

The film was a sensual master piece with a ending that leaves you spell bound and mystified as to the fact when will they meet again and embrace the reality of the love that transformed from a relationship that was never to be. I especially loved the garden it was so magnificent and to even imagine that such beauty could exist in a city of concrete and pavement. Bronte has such passion for this magnificent garden that she is willing to forgo all obstacles in such blindness that she does not even see the beauty with in the beast of her new husband until it is too late to really let him know how much she cares for him. in the end you can feel the pain that both lovers have as they no longer have the ability to be together in the garden of eden as with Adam and eve where Adam and eve were cast out of the garden Bronte was left with the garden all alone.