A Paper Wedding

Rating:
Summary: Mild romance picture, but I love it
Review: "~When "Paper Wedding" was released it was universally described as "like 'Green Card,' only a lot better.""~ most passionate scenes I've seen, when the man and woman are trying to get their story straight before their interview with the feds. I don't mean passionate in a sex-scene sense -- it's all in the mind. Afterwards it's not certain whether these two will fall in love, but if they do it will be this conversation that started it.

Rating:
Summary: Mild romance picture, but I love it
Review: "~When "Paper Wedding" was released it was universally described as "like 'Green Card,' only a lot better.""~ most passionate scenes I've seen, when the man and woman are trying to get their story straight before their interview with the feds. I don't mean passionate in a sex-scene sense -- it's all in the mind. Afterwards it's not certain whether these two will fall in love, but if they do it will be this conversation that started it.

Rating:
Summary: A really good modern romance
Review: A really good modern romance. Released in the wake of "Green Card" Paper Wedding was not a big hit at the box office but it is the better of the two films.

The plot is based on the arranged marriage of two characters who under ordinary circumstances would never have met. The heroine, (Bujold), is a single woman an academic in her thirties who lives alone and has an ongoing affair with another ,(married) academic. Her sister, (a lawyer), persuades her to marry a man so that he can get Canadian citizenship.

Our hero is a political dissident from a corrupt regime seeking asylum in Canada.

It is agreed that after the "Paper Wedding" the couple will never see eachother again and six months later the marriage will be quietly and unobtrusively dissolved. The "Wife" gets paid and the "Husband" will get legal entry into Canada.

Things go awry when immigration officials get wind of the scam and insist on interviewing the couple. The couple then agree to live together for a month during which time they will work at getting to know one anotther in hopes that they may fool immigration into believing that theirs is a real love match and not just a paper wedding.

He sleeps on the couch and she sleeps in her bed. Their purpose is simply to learn all the intimate details of eachothers ways and habits.

This is a movie filled with delicate well observed moments such as when she inadvertently sees his scared back and finds out that in his country he has been whipped. For a moment her heart opens to him and then closes again. He sensing this plays the gentleman and does not try to make something of her vulnerability.

You have to see the movie to appreciate it.

I will not give away its end exept to say that it is unexpected and the very last scene is magnificent in a quiet and very realistic way. I love that this movie deals with very believable people showing their strengths and vulnerabilities to eachother. It is one of those love stories that relies on good acting rather than verbose "Love you's" and romantic music.

Rating:
Summary: A Charmer
Review: The film concerns an arranged marriage between a Canadian college professor and a Hispanic immigrant man who is in the country illegally and is being pursued by a Robert-Mitchum-type immigrations officer. The professor's sister happens to be the legal counsel for the immigrant, and talks her sister into agreeing to the marriage. In order to pass the required court interview to determine if the marriage is "real" as opposed to a legal contrivance, the couple must learn a great deal about each other in a short time. The more they learn, the more they see each other as human beings--and attractive ones at that.

This film's good qualities are more subtle than obvious, and are often visual rather than verbal, as we watch the play of emotion on the actors' faces. The color film quality is quite grainy and soft-focused, and handheld cameras are used a lot, giving it a quasi documentary quality. One has to get used to it, especially if one expects clear, bright images from a DVD. In French and Spanish, with English subtitles.

Rating:
Summary: Quiet but stunning
Review: Two very private people, a university professor and an illegal immigrant from political persecution, are thrown together in an arranged marriage that will give the immigrant Canadian citizenship. Each learns of a new kind of intimacy and caring. A wonderful film.