+ Best True Story Movie of the Year
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| The beautiful poster for Philippe Falardeau's The Good Lie |
The civil war in Sudan takes parents away from large groups of innocent tribal children and youths, who are forced to walk hundreds of miles to get to a safe refugee camp. After many years there, a group of these now adult Sudanese are permitted to become immigrants in the US.
The incredible true story of Good Lie is greater than the film itself here, but luckily the filmmakers succeed in using it to tell an excellent and moving story of compassion, struggle and sacrifice.
The Good Lie is an edifying, beautiful and inspirational story with a structure that goes a bit here, a bit there, but which finds its way surely into one's heart regardless. Screenwriter Margaret Nagle (Red Band Society (2014), TV-series) and director Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar (2011)) deserve compliments for both taking their time to show us the hellish escape of the kids to the refugee camp and their life there and the difficulties they encounter in their integration in America.
Here Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line (2005)) proves her status as a seasoned, wonderful star actress; she doesn't play a saint here but an ordinary and sometimes bossy American woman, who gradually begins to see the Sudanese as who they are. Corey Stoll (Ant-Man (2015)) also do well in this section of the film. Most impressive, however, and deeply humbling is the fact that 3 of the Sudanese protagonists are played by actual Sudanese refugees: Ger Duany (I Heart Huckabees (2004)), who portrays Jeremiah, and Emmanuel Jal (Africa United (2010)), who portrays Paul, were both child soldiers and later war refugees from Sudan, and Kuoth Wiel (Headlock (2015)), who portrays Abital, is also a Sudanese war refugee.
The Good Lie is a positive must-see!
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Cost: 20 mil. $
Box office: 2.7 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertainty
[The Good Lie's distribution was very poorly handled by Warner Bros., who released it on less than 500 screens to a 0.8 mil. $ opening weekend. Despite great audience and critical response, the film fizzed out with just 2.7 mil. $ in domestic receipts. An international total isn't public, but numbers from 8 markets are on Box Office Mojo, of which Spain is the largest with just 0.2 mil. $. This film's release was poorly managed and received a shameful reception worldwide, it looks like, and depending on the unknown numbers, it looks, regrettably, like a mega-flop. The Good Lie is certified fresh at 88 % with a 6.7 critical average and a 4/5 audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. - Go buy this on DVD/Bluray/VoD today to encourage filmmakers to pursue important material such as this again in the future!]
What do you think of The Good Lie?
