Director: Philippe Falardeau
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal, Kuoth Wiel, Corey Stoll
Certificate: 12
Running Time: 110 minutes
With the tagline ‘To reunite their family, she had to discover herself’, you may be under the impression that Legally Blonde starlet Reese Witherspoon is the main feature – especially so when you see her face on the DVD cover. However, despite all of this, Witherspoon sits on the back-burner, letting the true heroes tell the story, one of heartache, determination and love.
Set in Sudan, Mamere (Oceng), Paul (Jal), Jeremiah (Duany) and Abital (Wiel) are four youngsters enjoying life in their tribe, until everything they know is destroyed by war. Now orphans, the foursome must travel across the country to find help, discovering refuge in a huge camp run by an American charity. After living in the camp for several years, now trained as doctors and teachers, the charity announces they’re sending a lucky few to America to start new lives, with Mamere, Paul, Jeremiah and Abital all mentioned on the list. However, once in the arrivals lounge of the airport they discover that Abital will be sent across the country, rather than staying with her brothers. Separated for the first time in years, the trio must learn how to adapt to their new American lives, coming into contact with telephones, bunk beds…and Jello for the first time.
Enter Witherspoon as Carrie Davis – a brash employment officer, assigned to help the men find jobs. While they start off well, Mamere, Paul and Jeremiah all find the Western way tough to follow, with Jeremiah sacked from his supermarket role after he’s found giving a homeless person waste food. While Davis struggles to relate to the three, she does recognise their longing for their sister, so she decides to track her down.
Based on true events, it’s understandable that The Good Lie is extremely sentimental in its style. A mixture of flashbacks, slow-motion and longing looks, while the story itself is emotional and moving the style within which it’s captured could be reimagined. With this in mind, the focus on Witherspoon misrepresents the film completely. Although the character of Davis is key in helping the men find work, the advertising seems to completely ignore them, featuring their silhouettes beneath Witherspoon’s face. While Davis does ‘discover herself’, the story’s heart is based within the themes of family, separation and determination, alongside faith and belief, all of which enable Davis to make changes in her own life, as without their painful story she’d be defunct of a role.
Aside from this, the film is enjoyable if you like sentimental drama. With a big reveal waiting for you at the end I’d recommend you continue to watch, purely to admire the genuine emotion and acting from the quad, perhaps so believable because – you’ve guessed it – three of the four lived through the Sudanese civil war.
Filled with honest emotion, The Good Lie is a tale filled with hope and joy, it’s just a shame that at times the way it’s told is a little bland.
The Good Lie is available on Blu-ray and DVD from Monday 31st August.
