Parents' Guide to The Good Lie

Judging by the marketing materials, it would be easy to dismiss The Good Lie as one of those borderline-offensive chronicles of how a charming white person rescued suffering people of color. But that's not at all how this touching drama plays out -- the movie really does follow the Sudanese characters and doesn't turn the story into the Reese Witherspoon show. A star vehicle this is not. Most of the actors who play the four Sudanese refugees (both as children and adults) actually are Sudanese, and in many cases are either the children of or themselves former war survivors and child soldiers.

Director Philippe Falardeau effectively captures the horror of the characters' orphaned childhood experiences escaping Sudan and then the awe and anxiety of their move to the United States. But he and screenwriter Margaret Nagle don't dwell too long on the historical context of the war they escaped; instead, they explore the myriad ways that so much loss can strip a person down to essential needs -- the overwhelming one being a sense of family. The three men all find jobs in Kansas, but what really fuels them is their need to be with their sister (by blood or of the heart) Abital (Kuol Wiel) again. They are their own tribe, their own family, and in this country where the individual is king, recreating that family is what matters most. Witherspoon and Corey Stoll, who plays her boss, do a fine job showing how they're transformed by knowing these fragile but unbroken young men. Ultimately this is the sincere, uplifting story of Sudanese transplants who've experienced so much trauma but manage to still hold on to faith, family, friendship, and hope.