An innate understanding of what their parts entail pours forth from their very being. You can sense it in their faces, their body language, in the distinctive cadence of their speech, and in their humble though dignified stances. Even the younger versions of their characters are the offspring of the so-called “Lost Boys of Sudan.”
The trailers and poster for "The Good Lie" give the impression that Reese Witherspoon is the star and that her plucky Midwesterner is yet another cinematic incarnation of a white savior coming to the rescue of struggling black people, similar to the role that earned Sandra Bullock an Academy Award in 2009’s “The Blind Side.” But that’s just a marketing ploy that relies on its own good lie as a selling tool: promoting an Oscar-winner as bait for a drama full of unknowns.
There does exist a 2011 film, “Machine Gun Preacher,” that fits that clichéd description in the manner in which it uses the Sudanese unrest as a backdrop. The biopic verges on B-movie exploitation as it features Gerard Butler as a reformed drug-abusing outlaw biker who becomes a missionary and pledges to defend the African orphans against guerrilla forces. The outcome isn’t exactly awful, but the movie’s biggest mistake is telling the wrong story about the wrong hero.
Instead, “The Good Lie” honors its subject matter by devoting its first half-hour or so to events that unfold in Sudan, starting with a sudden and brutal attack on a rural village. Bullets are fired from a swooping helicopter, killing everyone save for several children. Related or not, they form a makeshift family and embark on a grueling 1,000-mile barefoot trek across punishing terrain where the threat of danger is around every bend.
Hoping to draw a wider audience with a PG-13 rating, Canadian director Philippe Falardeau (“Monsieur Lazhar,” a 2011 nominee for best foreign language film) skillfully finds a way to keep graphic violence at bay and still get the point across with a harrowing sequence that involves crossing a river strewn with floating dead bodies to evade the vicious rebels nearby.
Starvation, a lack of water and illness claim the lives of several of the companions. As for Theo, who inherited his late father’s status as chief, he allows himself to be captured to save the rest, who eventually find sanctuary at a Kenyan refugee camp. And there they will stay for 13 years, until humanitarian efforts abroad allow them to seek a permanent home in Kansas City, Mo., where three of Theo’s brothers–gentle giant Jeremiah (Ger Duany), handyman Paul (Emmanuel Jal) and Mamere (Arnold Oceng, a standout who knows how to express a lot with little apparent effort)–are sent.
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