Inspired by a true story, which means it’s loosely based on something that happened at some time, The Good Lie focuses on the Lost Boys of Sudan, refugees from a brutal civil war who were transported to the United States to get a second chance.

In The Good Lie, three “brothers” arrive in Kansas with no understanding of basic things like phones, refrigerators or what we consider basic jobs. They struggle to survive in a strange world, but are aided by a case worker played by Reese Witherspoon, because Reese Witherspoon needed something to do.

The Good Lie is a decent little movie that clearly and proudly takes the Hollywood approach to a very sad and tragic situation. It’s a predictable, paint-by-the-numbers drama that won’t win any awards, but will pull on the heartstrings a bit.

The movie is its strongest early on as director Philippe Falardeau depicts the Sudanese conflict. The things that happen to the lead characters—their families getting butchered, their trek across hundreds of miles of desert with little or no water, their close calls with rebel soldiers and ultimate placement in a refugee camp is sad, mesmerizing and suspenseful. Whether these specific people existed in real life doesn’t really matter; their story is engrossing and realistic.

Unfortunately, Falardeau makes his first tragic mistake by jumping ahead a dozen years, skipping over much of the time the characters spend in the refugee camp. The transition is abrupt, awkward and disappointing, given how invested I was in the young characters up unto that point.

Falardeau essentially starts over with a new, adult cast at this point. The movie almost becomes a comedy as the Sudanese refugees are sent to America, resulting in a variety of fish-out-of-water situations. There are some fun sequences in here, but the movie loses some of its edge.

When Witherspoon’s character, who at first didn’t care about anything, begins to actually give a shit about the men who have befriended her, Falardeau makes his second tragic mistake of the film. Her transformation is so abrupt and polished it feels like a good 20 minutes were chopped from the film; her change in attitude has no emotional resonance at all, leaving the film’s climax largely hollow. The entire third act is bland and feels unfinished, as if the filmmakers were content with half-assing their own production.

The Good Lie is moderately entertaining, but the scenes set in Sudan are notably better than those based in the United States. Overly polished and ultimately generic, The Good Lie is a good but hardly great drama. Wait until DVD.

Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.