Aubrey Malone
The Good Lie (12A)
When you consider the horrors undergone by a family of five African children during the 1991 Sudanese War in this deeply moving film – which includes the deaths of their parents after their village is massacred – it’s hard to believe they won’t be relieved to be five of the 3,600 people moved to the ‘Promised Land’ of America in its aftermath.
But Mamere (Arnold Oceng), Jeremiah (Ger Duany) and Paul (Emmanuel Jal) find it difficult to adapt to America. They also find themselves pining for their sister Abital (Kuoth Wiel), who’s separated from them. Because a host family can’t be found for her in Kansas City where they’re re-settled, she has to go to Boston instead.
Neither is their older brother Theo (Femi Oguns) with them. He sacrificed himself to spare them during the war. Now they fear he’s dead, like their parents.
They get jobs but often don’t fit in with the other workers. They’re reasonably proficient in English but find it difficult to adjust to American practices, like for instance the throwing out of food when it’s past its sell-by date. (Because they faced death from hunger on an almost daily basis on their 1,000-mile trek to the Kakuma refugee camp during the war, this is hardly surprising.)
As well as being the tale of four people trying to deal with the culture shock of a new continent, this is also a parable about the reunification of a family against near-insuperable odds. Such odds are multiplied a hundredfold after 9/11 when the exigencies of red tape so often over-rode common sense apropos war refugees from ‘trouble spots’ seeking new homes, new lives.
From a cinematic point of view, the film scores highly. It would have been very easy for director Philippe Falardeau to milk the gaucheness of the three brothers as they try to learn the ways of modern life. But he doesn’t. This was one of the things I liked most about the film. He’s gently affectionate in showing us how they don’t know how to answer a phone, or how they pour cornflakes into a kettle. He presents these scenarios to us for a few seconds and then moves on. There’s no ‘wow’ factor, no patronisation, no cheap laughs.
There’s also a touching image of the three young men standing at a fence looking at a herd of cattle in one scene, making you wonder why somebody didn’t get them some kind of a job like this. It would have given them a connection with their past instead of putting them in soulless places like supermarkets.
The only household name in the film is Reese Witherspoon. She’s the young men’s employment mentor. You always know Witherspoon is going to do a good acting job in a movie. She delivers here as well, going from an initially offhand attitude to the three immigrants to becoming a genuine Good Samaritan figure. Like everything else in the film, her ‘reformation’ is understated. (Even calling it a reformation seems extreme.)
On every count this endearing story is a winner, right down to the ‘good lie’ of the finale, which I’ll leave you to discover for yourself.
Don’t be afraid to shed a tear or two.
Excellent: *****
