''The Good Lie'' is a 2014 American

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

film written by

Margaret Nagle Margaret Nagle (born January 12, 1969) is a screenwriter, television producer and human rights activist. She has been nominated for two Emmy Awards and won three Writers Guild of America Awards. Nagle began her undergraduate work at UC Berkel ...

and directed by

Philippe Falardeau Philippe Falardeau (born February 1, 1968 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. Early life Falardeau was born and raised in Hull, Quebec. He later studied political science at the University of Ottawa, before travellin ...

. The film stars

Reese Witherspoon Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon (born March 22, 1976) is an American actress and producer. The recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards, she ...

in the title role, Arnold Oceng,

Ger Duany Ger Duany (born 1978 in Akobo, Greater Upper Nile in South Sudan) is an actor. He is a self-described “village boy”. Early life Duany was born in Akobo (then part of Sudan) on November 9, 1978. He had his first experience of war at the ...

Emmanuel Jal Emmanuel Jal (born Jal Jok 1 January 1980) is a South Sudanese-Canadian artist, actor, former child soldier, and political activist. His autobiography, ''War Child: A Child Soldier's Story'', was published in 2009. Childhood Jal was born to ...

, and

Corey Stoll Corey Stoll (born March 14, 1976) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Congressman Peter Russo on the Netflix political thriller series ''House of Cards'' (2013–2016), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination in 2013 ...

. ''The Good Lie'' was screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival before being released on October 3, 2014. Another major screening was held by the

Greenwich International Film Festival The Greenwich International Film Festival (or GIFF) is a non-profit organization that celebrates the visual arts in Greenwich, CT, with an annual film festival in June and supporting events throughout the year. The Festival, located in downtown Gr ...

on October 22, 2014, for the benefit of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

Plot

During the

Second Sudanese Civil War The Second Sudanese Civil War was a conflict from 1983 to 2005 between the central Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army. It was largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil War of 1955 to 1972. Although it originate ...

, siblings Mamere, Paul, Jeremiah, Theo, Daniel, and Abital escape after their families and village are massacred. After numerous days of walking in the wilderness, they join a group of refugees but have to leave after they are caught by enemy soldiers and many people are killed. After sleeping in the grassland, Mamere wakes up and spots two enemy soldiers approaching them. Theo hides the rest of the siblings in the grass and lies to the soldiers that he is alone. He is taken in custody with the soldiers. The group eventually arrives at a Sudanese refugee camp in

Nairobi, Kenya Nairobi ( ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows throug ...

, where Daniel succumbs to disease and dies. Thirteen years later, among the thousands in the camp, the siblings win for relocation to the United States. On arrival in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, Abital is unexpectedly told that she is to leave for

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, where a family awaits. As their sister tearfully leaves, Jeremiah, Mamere and Paul board the flight to Kansas City, where they meet Carrie Davis, a brash employment counselor, who helps them find jobs, and Pamela, who provides them their house and support. Jeremiah works at a grocery store and teaches Sunday school at a local church, but later quits the job because he was caught giving old food to a homeless person rather than throwing it away. Paul works at a factory and makes friends with his co-workers, where he is exposed to drugs. Mamere takes two jobs as a store clerk and a security guard to pay for schooling, as he aspires to become a medical doctor. Mamere eventually convinces Carrie to help them bring back Abital; on Christmas Eve, Carrie arrives at their home with Abital and the

Lost Boys of Sudan The Lost Boys of Sudan refers to a group of over 20,000 boys of the Nuer and Dinka ethnic groups who were displaced or orphaned during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1987–2005). Two million were killed and others were severely affected by the ...

celebrate their birthday on January 1, as they had never known the date when they were born. Abital receives an anonymous letter stating that someone entered the refugee camp in Kenya searching for the group. Thinking it is Theo, Mamere travels to

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

and searches the refugee camp after they tell him that Theo is not registered. After meeting James, an old friend, he is reunited with Theo the next day. Mamere tries to get immigration papers to multiple embassies and fails, but tells Theo that the "task" was done. At the airport, Mamere reveals to Theo that he could not get him a passport and instead gives Theo his own passport - a deception that is the 'good lie'. After a tearful farewell, Theo leaves and is embraced by his family upon arrival in the United States; Mamere remains in Kenya and works at the camp hospital.

Cast

as Carrie Davis *

as Jeremiah * Arnold Oceng as Mamere *

as Paul * Kuoth Wiel as Abital *

Femi Oguns Olufemi Temitope Ogunsanwo (born 28 October 1977), known as Femi Oguns, is a prominent British agent and former actor who founded Identity School of Acting and Identity Agency Group. Background Femi Oguns obtained a joint honours degree in R ...

as Theo *

as Jack * Sarah Baker as Pamela *

Mike Pniewski Michael Pniewski (born April 20, 1961) is an American actor and public speaker. Life and career Pniewski was born in Los Angeles, California. His education began at UCLA, where he graduated in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theater and al ...

as Nick *

Thad Luckinbill Thaddeus Rowe Luckinbill (born April 24, 1975) is an American actor and producer best known for playing J.T. Hellstrom on the CBS soap opera ''The Young and the Restless'', from August 1999 to November 2010. He reprised the role of J.T. in Dece ...

as Matt

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating of 87% based on 86 reviews and an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''The Good Lie'' sacrifices real-life nuance in order to turn its true story into a Hollywood production, but the results still add up to a compelling, well-acted, and deeply moving drama." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a score of 65 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews" from critics. Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film a rare average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale.

won the Writers Guild of America Paul Selvin Award for her script to this film.

Copyright and fraud lawsuit

In February 2015, the Foundation for Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan, Inc., acting on behalf of 54 Sudanese refugees, filed a lawsuit in Georgia against writer Margaret Nagle, Alcon Entertainment and Imagine Entertainment. The suit claimed that the refugees were joint authors of the stories they had told Nagle in interviews that she had recorded and used to write the story. It also asserted that a joint venture agreement had been breached, with fraud and other issues arising from a promise of compensation from a producer. The US District Judge initially granted the defendants' motion to dismiss but allowed the suit to be refiled if the plaintiffs subsequently and successfully registered copyright of the interviews. The court ultimately found that the refugees' statements supported the finding of copyright infringement and a permanent injunction on the movie. Before the case could be concluded, however, the plaintiffs' claims were settled out of court.

References

External links