THE GOOD LIE
Warner Bros
Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten. Data-based on Rotten Tomatoes
Grade: B+
Director: Philippe Falardeau
Screenplay: Margaret Nagle
Cast: Corey Stoll, Reese Witherspoon, Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal, Corey Stoll, Kuoth Wiel, Femi Oguns, Lindsay Garrett
Screened at: Lincoln Square, NYC, 10/1/14
Opens: October 3, 2014
You jumped the turnstile at the #4 train at Grand Central Station and the police are on your trail. You read about Riker’s Detention Center in a recent issue of New York magazine, and you’re not going to Rikers. You toss a dart at a map of the world. It lands on London. No good. Toss another and you get Khartoum. Ah, there’s no extradition agreement between the U.S. and Sudan, so you take your Amazon credit card and find your way to Northeast Africa. You’re set get food from Amazon, but they don’t deliver to Khartoum. (Hard to believe, I know.) You go to the market trying out some classical Arabic, but they speak only Dinka and Nuer, and besides you have no idea what is on the road that passes for food. People look at you because you look strange to them, pale, blue-eyed, blonde, and you have a smile that shows 32 teeth.
You’re the Lost Boy of New York. Now you know what it must feel like for anyone to wind up in a country of a vastly different culture.
In a fictionalized movie that will remind you of a recent documentary TV episode on 60 Minutes, Philippe Falardeau directs a story about actual experiences by a handful of Sudanese refugees being chased not by police for jumping a turnstile but by soldiers from the army of Sudan engaged in civil warfare with folks from the southern part of their country. And these soldiers are brutal. Though Falardeau and scripter Margaret Nagle display only a hint of the atrocities—a handful of soldiers, their heads wrapped as though to hide their identities, raid villages on horseback and in helicopters, torching the modest huts and shooting down men, women and children with their automatic weapons. In one of these horrific events, a family of six lose two of their members as they trudge over a four-year period, a 750 mile hike from what is now South Sudan to a refugee camp in Kenya that will house 100,000 of the newly homeless people. During the hike, which prompted the small group to cite the Biblical story of Moses, appropriately enough, they scare a tiger away from a kill, taking the animal kill for food. They drink urine—though heaven knows how they can produce the stuff given the lack of water—saying a mantra “I do not want to die” as they choke the awful liquid down.
Through a system not made clear in this film, a few thousand refugees will be transported to the U.S., housed with volunteers. Thirteen years pass. Memere (Arnold Oceng), who had served as a “chief”; Jeremiah (Ger Duany) who looks about seven feet tall, and Paul (Emmanuel Jal) go to live with faith-based volunteer Pamela (Sarah Baker) while their sister Abital (Kuoth Wiel) is referred to Boston, to the dismay of the male trio. They are met at the Kansas City Missouri airport by Carrie (Reese Witherspoon), who works with an employment agency and is pressed into the service of getting them jobs. A principal hook, or theme, of the movie is Carrie’s change from a woman just doing a job to becoming a good friend of the three and eventually four Sudanese.
As with the TV program on 60 Minutes, some of the humor comes from the group’s lack of familiarity with the accoutrements of a highly developed civilization. Running water, electricity, telephone—all are new to them, so much so that when Carrie calls them, they think the phone is just an alarm and do not answer. They put their mattresses on the floor to sleep. They peer through a straw at McDonald’s thinking it’s a telescope and give fortune-cookie responses to Americans. For example, noting that Carrie is single, no children, one of the Sudanese wishes for her “a husband to fill your empty house.”
The major part of the drama, however, is serious. Paul, introduced to weed by two employees at a factory (because the two white guys fear that his fast work will make them look bad), eventually becomes homesick for Sudan and feels peaceful only in the presence of cattle from Jack (Corey Stoll), the guy who raises the animals. Jeremiah, working in a supermarket, believes that it is a sin to turn away people in need. When he offers a homeless woman fresh food from the store, telling her not to bother diving in a dumpster, he resigns before being fired by the manager. Mamere wants only to study medicine and become a doctor and will make a decision that will reverse his good fortune forever.
As much as the Sudanese change, becoming more American than the rest of us (which is the immigrant story writ small), the Americans who come into contact with these fine young men and one woman will change their own priorities in seeing how much good they are doing for those in need. Filmed in South Africa and around Atlanta, this is a Hallmark Hall of Fame-style movie that plays it safe, avoid showing truly harrowing experiences, and mining the story for both tears and laughter.
For the few in the audience who do not speak Dinka and Nuer, titles are provided.
Rated PG-13. 110 minutes. © 2014 by Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online
Story – B
Acting – B+
Technical – B+
Overall – B+
