Last night we saw the Peter Weir film "Green Card", with Andie MacDowell and Gerard Depardieu. The have pretty good chemistry, and it's light fare, unlike most of his films. MacDowell was a limited actress, but has an interesting face and in certain roles, is right. This is one of those roles. She's uptight, needs a little loosening to enjoy life, like Jean Simmons in "Guys and Dolls". She doesn't want to take a risk, but once she does, in marrying Depardieu's character George, so she can appear married to get the coop apartment with the greenhouse that she covets, her whole world turns upside down. Sarah Brown went to Havana, drank rum milkshakes and discovered love. Bronte, MacDowell's character, has to be instantly intimate with George, in order to answer questions correctly for the Immigration people, when their marriage is deemed suspicious. Is George her type? Definitely not. But he warms her up, understands and listens, and even helps her persuade a society matron to donate her trees to a project of Bronte's.
There are some great scenes, including taking pictures on the roof to construct a past together for the authorities, their touching descriptions of each other for the immigration officiers, and the best scene is at the mansion of the society lady, where Bronte, who fears George is not a composer, discovers he can play the piano in an extremely funny dissonant piece, and then on the spot plays a melody and recites a poem spontaneously for the purpose of getting her the trees she so desperately wants for her gardens for the poor.
The use of Manhattan is lively and true. There is a sense of all nations converging, highlighted by African drumming on the street and a terrific soundtrack. This film is a trifle, but fun to see. It's a love letter to New York, and better than anything Woody Allen ever did. And we get to see Depardieu before he turned into a blimp, like Orson Welles and Marlon Brando. They were gorgeous when they were young.
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