The Good Lie begins by explaining the context of the story: in the 90s, civil war broke out in Sudan, devastating the populace. Many fled from their villages and found their way to refugee camps in Kenya. Years later, some were given a chance to immigrate to the United States. The film mainly follows three of these refugees: Mamere (Arnold Oceng), Jeremiah (Ger Duany) and Paul (Emmanuel Jal), who have made their way to Kansas City, Missouri. The three are mystified by the strange ways of the Americans, and they must learn to adapt in order to survive in their new environment.
The story of the Lost Boys of the Sudan is a terrific one, and The Good Lie does a fairly good job of depicting the terrors that these young men faced. For its first act, it soberly follows the journey from Sudan to Kenya, making it clear that there is a chance that none of them would actually survive the journey. It thrives on the small details of how these children came to survive such hardship, with a combination of their familial bond and a sheer determination to live keeping them alive against incredible odds.
And then the film moves to America, and things get a little more complicated. The film introduces Carrie (Reese Witherspoon), the woman who’s assigned to find jobs for the three main characters. The movie then becomes just as much about her journey. She begins as someone who lives in a messy house and has casual sex with random men. And then, through the goodness she sees in these Sudanese refugees, she begins to gain a heart. She decides to invest more time in their well-being, and helps in trying to reunite them with a beloved family member.
And it is a much less interesting story. Carrie exists as a compromise to the demands of Hollywood filmmaking: a friendly white face that can be played by a recognizable movie star. And her story just feels rote compared to the struggles of the three main characters. Whereas the Lost Boys are trying to learn the mysterious ways of a completely alien culture while still grappling with the memories of the horrors they faced in their homeland, Carrie’s story is all about how she needs to keep a clean house.
Still, when the film focuses on the three main characters, it finds plenty of interesting material. It studies the smallest moments of the immigrant experience, drilling down into very specific examples of these characters trying to reconcile their personhood with their new surroundings. And the film chronicles an interesting time in US history, with the specter of 9/11 complicating the narrative in interesting ways. The film also benefits from some great acting. Arnold Oceng is particularly great as Mamere, whose weary resolve forms the real heart of the picture. And though Reese Witherspoon is saddled with a wholly extraneous role, she delivers a steely performance that is kind of entertaining at times.
The Good Lie isn’t a bad film. It’s just a little too easy to see the compromises made to bring this story to screen. In a perfect world, this story would only be about the Lost Boys and their remarkable journey to America. But the common wisdom in commercial filmmaking is that people don’t want to see stories about the other, that there needs to be someone in the film with which the audience can identify. But adding a white character feels like terribly superficial thinking. Because one would hope that we can all identify with hardship, that there is enough empathy in all of us to know that this story is worth telling, even without a big star at the heart of it all.
My Rating:
