Monday, November 16, 2009

A recent film- "The Proposal"

Recently, I watched two of the year’s most popular comedies: the Proposal and I love You, Man. Although the critics’ review on Yahoo gave higher rate for I Love You, Man, I personally prefer the Proposal much further,not only because it is a romantic comedy but also because the movie is quite related with the research paper I am working on.
The story is about a successful and imperious Canadian woman in Manhattan, who is accused to overstay with an invalid U.S. visa and is about to be deported by USCIS agent. In order to keep her legal visa status in the U.S, she decides to risk violating the law and persuades her assistant to collude with her for a phony marriage. Throughout their plan, they eventually fall in love with each other. The romance is a little bit cliché, just like most of the other romantic comedy, but there are still a lot of sweet and affable moments about family relations.
In addition, although this film is mostly about a love journey, it does uncovers some problems of the current broken and inefficient procedure existing in U.S. immigration bureaucracy—the long queue of immigration applicants in USCIS bureau, inhumane and rigid regulations, and low efficiency in case processing.
One of the most hilarious parts appears when the closing credits are on. The main characters are being interviewed by immigration officers. Interview questions such as “What’s your wife’s favorite color when she’s not home?” and “What’s the flavor of your husband’s Speed Stick? Mask or Alpine?” “Does your wife fart in front of you?” are queerly hilarious. I think most audience cannot stop laughing when they watch this part.
I googled the “marriage interview questions for U.S. immigration” after I watched this film. I found out that weird questions are more than the forementioned. It is understandable that these questions are deliberately designed to prevent phony marriage and defend the law. However, is it necessary to make the whole procedure as a “game show” or a slapstick?
Hope an upcoming immigration reform will change it and make the immigration process a pleasant one instead of a struggle.

Vocabulary:
Imperious - able to deal authoritatively with affairs
Collude - to act in conspire; to act in unison or agreement and in secret towards a deceitful or illegal purpose

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