To the uninitiated, those filmgoers who haven't seen a French film since "Breathless," Gerard Depardieu is going to come as a shock. Unrefined, more than a bit chubby and blessed/cursed with a nose larger than Streisand's, he is a huge star in Europe, but he's hardly a conventional leading man. But he's enormously charming and diverse, as evidenced by his recent tackling of everything from a sophisticated businessman in "Too Beautiful For You" to Rodin in "Camille Claudel" to his latest efforts, playing a humble immigrant in "Green Card" and the outspoken swordsman "Cyrano de Bergerac." Both films are terrific in their own right, but it's Depardieu who makes them work.
"Green Card" is a perfect contemporary companion piece to "Cyrano," matching up quiet French immigrant Georges (Depardieu) and the even more low-key American gardener Bronte (Andie MacDowell) in a marriage of convenience for mutual benefit. Georges desperately wants a green card to allow him to stay and work in the U.S., while Bronte needs a husband in order to snag an apartment with ample garden space in a marrieds-only building. Seperating almost immediately after leaving city hall, the two are thrown back together when a government crackdown on illegal alien marriages threatens to blow both their covers. With only a few days to do so, Georges and Bronte must construct and memorize a facsimile of a love story, complete with shared memories and a book of snapshots.
The story could have been turned into a plastic sitcom, but director Peter Weir ("Witness," "Dead Poets Society") gives it an earthy feel and the crackling chemistry between Depardieu and MacDowell gives it considerable charm. Speaking English for the first time onscreen, Depardieu beautifully conveys outsider Georges' longings for both America and his American wife in-name-only.
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