The Good Lie

Review By: John Delia

A heartwarming and heartbreaking story of humanity in the face of adversity both in their original elements and in America, The Good Lie recalls the sorrow and travesty of the Sudanese children caught up in war.  The film stuns with disbelief, but it’s true and opens the doors to a view so bold it rattles the unthinkable with reality.  This is not a documentary or a historical movie. It’s a feature film that’s acted brilliantly by actual descendents of the children who were driven out of their homes to camps hundreds of miles away by a warring faction. 

The film opens with young Mamere (Peterdeng Mongok) and young Theo (Okwar Jale), sons of a Southern Sudan village chieftain grabbing their young sister Abital (Keji Jale) and running from an attack by the Northern Militia during the Second Sudanese Civil War.  Traveling nearly 1000 miles to get to the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, along the way they meet young Jeremiah (Thon Kueth) and young Paul (Deng Ajuet) who join them as they make their narrow escape from death. 

The story moves forward to a day in 2001 when their names are called at Kakuma for relocation to the United States.  There they are met by Carrie Davis (Reece Witherspoon) an employment counselor who finds Memere (Arnold Oceng), Jeremiah (Ger Duany) and Paul (Emmanuel Jal) jobs.  At work, they get the impression that the world in Kansas has gone mad with so much wasted food, ringing telephones and everyone with a car. Separated from his sister Abital (Kuoth Wiel) who had been sent to Boston and Theo (Femi Oguns) who was captured by the militia, Memere sets out to work a miracle using a good lie.

With a lot of bloodshed and aggression, the movie shows how the brutal war in Sudan took away its youth.  Director Philippe Falardeau holds nothing back picturing swarms of children running in fear for their lives while warring factions try to gun them down.  I found myself gripping the arms of my seat and mumbling some expletives at the carnage. He shows two sides to the expatriates, one of dismay for the challenges of working in a new world and the other coping with their new found freedom and safety.  The changes are so different than the seven years they spent in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya and it affects their visions of a future in the new world dealing with bosses and paychecks.

Acting by the cast is terrific and include Sudanese children of descendents and emigrants who were caught up in the war. Arnold Oceng (as Mermere), Ger Duany (as Jeremiah), Emmanuel Jal (as Paul), and Kuoth Wiel (Abital) are of Sudanese descent.  Playing the younger members of the group, Peterdeng Mongok, Okwar Jale, Thon Kueth, Deng Ajuet and Keji Jale are children of Sudanese refugees.

Although Reece Witherspoon does a good job of keeping her character interesting and thoughtful, she doesn’t make the role extra special. There’s a lack of energy and empathy in her Carrie Davis. Whether it was intentional by the director or the role just not right for her, the performance is weak and sometimes incidental to the plot. She gets introduced into the movie in a motel where she receives a phone call from her boss that they need her to pick up the arriving Sudanese.  Angry and bothered by the request, she’s cold and nonchalant when she picks up Mermere, Jeremiah and Paul. Her character really never warms up to the boys until she does something out of the ordinary for them. It’s surly not an Oscar worthy effort, just saying. 

The film’s beginning shows the crisis in countries on the African Continent in a very painful way.  Killing innocent children without hesitation as if they were targets in a shooting gallery, it felt like they were picking off birds in a cornfield.  Even if it’s “just a movie,” the portrayal gets so heartbreaking that you’ll feel like crying out at the screen.  On the flipside of the coin, the relocation of those who were lucky enough to get on an airplane to the United States or to other sympathetic countries prior to September 11, 2001, shows the heartfelt goodness of those nations who came to the aid of the children who are known as “the lost boys.”

The film has been rated PG-13 by the MPAA for thematic elements, some violence, brief strong language and drug use.  Be cautious when deciding to allow immature children see the film as it does have some difficult scenes showing children being shot. 

FINAL ANALYSIS: A very good film that opens the eyes of those that have been ignoring the plight in Africa. (B+)