Director: Philippe Falardeau
Writer: Margaret Nagle
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Corey Stoll, Sarah Baker, Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany
Studio: Warner Brothers
“The Good Lie” is a film about The Lost Boys of the Sudan. But, it’s also a paper thin clone of “The Blind Side” with a little more aggression. Reese Witherspoon plays the Lost Boys’ employment officer. It turns out that after crossing thousands of miles of land and sea, the charity that helped you get to America wants its money back. So, the four young men in the film are being monitored and forced to acclimate to a new homeland. It also doesn’t help that 9/11 happens shortly after the young men arrive in America.
Reese Witherspoon has started this weird identity crisis regarding what kind of actress she’ll be remembered as in the historical sense. She wants to do Prestige pictures, but there seems to be this pull to make everything marketable. While I hope that her turns later in the year prove to have a bit more edge, I’m starting to miss the ol’ Tracy Glick. You don’t get the sense that she can help these men or that she cares if they’re working menial jobs. It’s almost a form of indentured servitude to watch these bright spirits languish while their dreams die. But, Reese is going to get that Corey Stoll to kiss her. The elderly ladies in the front of the theater just know that’s being promised outside of this depressing African stuff.
It is easy to see why this film had to be cut into essentially two stories. You need Corey Stoll and the Mormon relief worker showing up to help make the material easier to digest. However, there is an Oscar worthy film in watching these young men and their adopted sister make it to America. Those kinds of movies don’t get wide releases from Warner Brothers, so you have to play the game. I’d love to see what director Phillipe Falardeau has to offer up next. I did love “Monsieur Lazhar”.
RELEASE DATE: 10/03/2014