Watch The Good Lie For Free

Simply Perfect

Purely Joyful Movie!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I must have been watching another film apart from everyone else because this is terrible. This film offers a "feel good" vibe meant to make us go, "good for them!". But in reality this war was brutal and went unattended for years by so many countries. Then you make a movie about the few who survived, never to see their home again. Feel good? They were brought to the U.S. and exploited, it is on screen for all to see! Also the freaking condescension is brutal to watch. "This is ice, it is frozen water!" Give me a break. This film is worse than the standard white Savior B.S. this is a self righteous, depressing, look what we did, pat yourselves on the back and shed a few tears B.S. But hey they made it to America, forget the millions of others who didn't even make it out of Sudan or the sorry state it is currently in now, and let us keep patting ourselves on the back.

The film is in 3 parts. The first part follows the Sudanese children who have lost everything and are seeking safety.The second part is a gentle but well-observed satire, marking the absolutely typical inhumanity and su-bnormality of many Americans who have never even left the state they were born in, their utter lack of any understanding of another culture, much less how strange everything is for these refugees from a very different world. Culture shock is completely ignored.A tiny example is the jello presented to the 3 brothers on their arrival at their final destination in weird and alien Kansas. (Yes, that is how it seems to the rest of the world! The world outside Northern America, which barely exists so far as most Americans are concerned!) The well-meaning volunteer intends it as a welcome token but the brothers don't even recognise it as food! (And of course part of the satire is that it isn't.)The last third is partly a redemption of some Americans who find ways around the legal craziness that has swamped the US, which denies it has any involvement itself in terrorism, except as victim. It is also partly about love and sacrifice.A bittersweet and at the same time a heartwarming gem of a film.

While its very much cut from the same cloth as films like The Blind Side and its story reeks of Hollywood sap, you'd be hard pressed to not find enjoyment in this based around real life stories The Good Lie, a film that more than likely bypassed cinemas near you upon release last year and failed to find an audience in any capacity.Produced by the Academy Award winning team of Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, The Good Lie certainly has pedigree behind it and with the true story of The Lost Boys Of Sudan as its base, it's hard to know exactly why the film failed so dismally when it was rolled out towards the later end of last year.Reviewed well and rated highly by audiences, one suspects that The Good Lie has the potential to be a slowly building sleeper hit in the years to come and with a tale so easy to like as this, it will be a film that brings both smiles and tears to many different people the world over even though its somewhat twee handling can hamper the films emotional engagement and some scripting scenario/acting turns dampen the films overall quality.The biggest success found within the Good Lie lays entirely on how central group of uprooted refugees led by Arnold Oceng's determined Mamere and Ger Duany's God fearing Jerimiah adapt to life in the land of opportunity in America. There's simple joys to be found in the sincere questioning these kind hearted souls ask and director Philippe Falardeau does a great job of handling his largely unknown cast in the way in which this is portrayed. The top billing of Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon is a little bit of marketing ploy here as a warning as she is largely a bit part player to the Sudanese squad and her role is a little too much "Sandra Bullock" to really work.An enjoyable, often funny and occasionally moving tale with call backs to real life trials over adversity, The Good Lie never becomes anything akin to other classic such tales but it's certainly a film worth tracking down. A quality production that deserved more credit than it ever got upon release, The Good Lie is just the type of Hollywood ilk that we need more of.3 1/2 McDonalds trips out of 5

Having priorities is one thing, not questioning things and taking them for granted something different. And it's not like you're bad if you don't think about things. It's just the way it is. That's why an outside "perspective" sometimes is helpful (and hurtful, depending on the situation and your willingness to empathize for others of course) to re-evaluate things.Why am I writing this here? Because people who're not getting things we have accepted as normal, will question things we're doing. They may seem logical (market wise and financial wise), but will seem incredible crazy to others. But it's not just here to tell that story. It's actually a movie about people trying to get a new/fresh start away from home and the trials and stipulations they have to overcome. Based on real life this will either catch and grip you or might be something you don't want/like to watch. It's definitely done in a great way, with more than solid performances