The concept of two people forced to live out their sham marriage to avoid the repercussions of their fraud being exposed and then developing a real relationship could have been the basis of a great movie. It could have provided an insight into the plight of the undocumented immigrant in the United States through the eyes of the person who initially helped them for the wrong reasons. I have seen this story actually play out in real life to some extent. It seems ripe for someone like Ava DuVernay to really do it justice by skillfully weaving together themes of suffering, social injustice, and love in a way that forces you to take it home and ponder it for a week or more.
But this film stripped that concept of all that was interesting, first by making sure that the immigrant wasn't from a " country," as Donald Trump would put it. Even worse, the character was dismissive of the supposedly rough neighborhood that he came from, saying that people should just forget about trying to improve those neighborhoods, because they would never change (and he's never seriously challenged on that statement or his attitude). The irony of the fierce liberal who still runs in enough wealthy social circles to feel pressure to enter a sham marriage so that she could get the perfect apartment is acknowledged, but more in a light-hearted comedic way than anything meaningful.
Also, the relationship between the 2 main characters wasn't developed well; it wasn't very convincing. And the ending was pretty unrealistic.
Review of Green Card
