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The Good Lie, directed by Philippe Falardeau
The Good Lie, directed by Philippe Falardeau

The Good Lie, directed by Philippe Falardeau (PG-13, 110 minutes)

Surviving the horrors of a genocidal civil war does not necessarily lead to living happily ever after. The challenges of carrying on, as experienced by four survivors of a 1983 war that split Sudan in two, are not well-known, especially to Americans, who tend to not pay much attention to atrocities that happen far away.

The Good Lie helps to inform our ignorance with a tough tale of a self-declared family from South Sudan who find that their journey to a safe and peaceful existence in a new world is not what they expected it to be.

Powerful performances by four young actors of Sudanese descent, along with a humane show of force by Reese Witherspoon and intense cinematography of contrasting cityscapes and African plains by Ronald Plante, give The Good Lie the strength to overcome some too-convenient script coincidences and an implausible ending.

Witherspoon, a brunette here, portrays Carrie Davis, an efficient employment agency counselor who, without advance notice, is called upon to fetch several survivors of the Sudanese war who have been given an opportunity to resettle in Kansas City, Mo. Full of hustle and focused on her work, she has no idea who these guys are, let alone what they’ve been through. Nor does she care, as her job is to deliver them to an apartment arranged for by a Christian counselor (Sarah Baker), then find them employment.

Why are they here? Discovering their past is the most compelling and successful segment of the film, as the camera follows a sudden attack on a rural South Sudan village by northern militia that forces thousands of children to escape sure death by walking to somewhere safe, which turns out to be the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, nearly 800 miles away. The grim circumstances of this forced exodus are played out with quiet determination by an extraordinary cast of young nonprofessionals aided by the director, who never succumbs to the temptation to turn the sequence into sensationalism.

Among the survivors are Mamere (Arnold Oceng), Jeremiah (Ger Duany), Paul (Emmanuel Jal), and Mamere’s sister Abital (Kuoth Wiel). The appealing foursome coalesce into a family that ends up spending 13 years at the refugee camp. Just as they’re about to run out of hope of reclaiming their lives, they learn they’re to be sent to Kansas City through the charity of a U.N.-supported program dedicated to bringing some 3,600 so-called Lost Boys (and girls) to American cities.

It’s not until 35 minutes into the film that Reese’s character shows up. Unlike Sandra Bullock’s scene-stealing Leigh Anne Tuohy in 2009’s The Blind Side, this film isn’t about Witherspoon’s Carrie. It’s about the Sudanese survivors, who only thought their experiences so far were harrowing. A crash course in 21st-century technology, motorized transportation, retail sales, fast food, consumerism and self-determination await.

The screenplay gets a little carried away with some of these admittedly entertaining culture clashes (how many times does a ringing telephone cause astonishment to someone who has never heard one before?). Then poof! A few minutes later, assimilation is complete and the story, with hardly a backward glance, briskly moves on to the much more personal experience of what it means to become an American.

The Trip to Italy (unrated, 108 minutes) In this spontaneous, sharply focused followup to 2010’s restaurant-tour comedy The Trip, Michael Winterbottom reunites Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon for a new culinary road trip that retraces the steps of the Romantic poets’ grand tour of Italy. Brydon’s assignment to review a series of Italian restaurants allows him and his pal Coogan to savor mouthwatering meals in gorgeous settings from Liguria to Capri while maintaining their long-running competitive edge and wisecracking on subjects as varied as Batman’s vocal register, the artistic merits of Jagged Little Pill, and the virtue of sequels. With Rosie Fellner, Marta Barrio.

The Skeleton Twins (R, 93 minutes) This compellingly honest love/hate dramedy mixes dark humor, outright hilarity, sudden insights and surprisingly risky emotional options when a calamity brings together long-separated twins Maggie (Kristen Wiig) of upstate New York and Milo (Bill Hader) of Los Angeles, who find their proximity forces them to face the circumstances behind why their melancholic lives didn’t turn out like they expected. With Luke Wilson, Ty Burrell, Joanna Gleason; directed by Craig Johnson and Rian Johnson.

Dolphin Tale 2 (PG, 107 minutes) A sincere, appealing family-friendly drama, Dolphin Tale 2 picks up the story of 2011’s Dolphin Tale concerning the dolphin Winter, who overcomes a future without hope by acquiring a prosthetic tail. With Harry Connick Jr., Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd; directed by Charles Martin Smith.

Traffickers (not rated, 111 minutes) This 2012 South Korean crime thriller happens in six hours on board a passenger boat and involves an organ-trafficking operation and a desperate husband trying to find his missing wife. Directed by Kim Hong-sun.

Union Station (unrated, 80 minutes) A relatively uninspired plot becomes tense and exciting in this 1950 crime thriller in which blind Lorna Murchison (Allene Roberts), daughter of millionaire Henry Murchison (Herbert Heyes), is kidnapped, causing railroad worker Lt. William Calhoun (William Holden) to gather clues and work to save her. With Nancy Olson, Lyle Bettger, Barry Fitzgerald; directed by Rudolph Mate.

Pride (R, 120 minutes) This lively, inspiring drama is set in 1984, when Great Britain’s National Union of Mineworkers goes on strike. Roused into action, a London-based group of gay activists gets busy raising money to support the strikers’ families. Although the funds are desperately needed, the union, culturally uncomfortable with the notion of homosexuals helping them, can’t bring itself to be happy about it. With Imelda Staunton, Paddy Considine, Bill Nighy, Dominic West; directed by Matthew Warchus.

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