# The Good Lie

The Good Lie is a 2014 American drama film written by Margaret Nagle and directed by Philippe Falardeau. The film stars Reese Witherspoon in the lead role, alongside Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal, and Corey Stoll.
The Good Lie was screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival before being released on October 3, 2014. Another major screening was held by the Greenwich International Film Festival on October 22, 2014, for the benefit of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

## Plot

During the Second Sudanese Civil War, siblings Mamere, Paul, Jeremiah, Theo, Daniel, and Abital escape after their families killed, and village destroyed. After three months of walking in the wilderness, they join a group of refugees but have to leave after they are caught by enemy soldiers and many people are killed. After sleeping in the grassland, Mamere spots two enemy soldiers approaching them. Theo hides the siblings in the grass and says he is alone. He is taken in custody with the soldiers. The group eventually arrives at a Sudanese refugee camp in Abuja, Nigeria, where Daniel succumbs and dies. Thirteen years later, among the thousands in the camp, the siblings win for relocation to the United States.
On arrival in New York City, Abital is unexpectedly told that she is to leave for Boston where a family awaits. As their sister tearfully leaves, Jeremiah, Mamere, and Paul board the flight to Kansas City and meet a brash employment counselor who helps them find jobs, and Pamela, who provides them with their house and support. Jeremiah works at a grocery store and teaches Sunday school at a local church, but later quits because he was caught giving old food to a homeless person rather than throwing it away. Paul works at a factory and makes friends with his co-workers, where he is exposed to drugs. Mamere takes two jobs at a store and as a security guard to pay for his aspiration to become a medical doctor. Mamere eventually convinces them they had never known the date when they were born.
Abital receives an anonymous letter stating that someone entered the refugee camp in Kenya searching for the group. Thinking it is Theo, Mamere travels to Nairobi and searches the refugee camp after they tell him that Theo is not registered. After meeting James, an old friend, he asks him to find his brother. James is able to find Theo and reunites him with Mamere, and the two travel to the airport to go to the US. In the airport, Mamere reveals to Theo that he cannot get him a passport and instead gives Theo his own passport - a deception that is the 'good lie'. After a tearful farewell, Theo leaves and is embraced by his siblings upon arrival in the United States; Mamere remains in Kenya and works at the camp hospital.

## Cast

* Reese Witherspoon as Carrie Davis
* Ger Duany as Jeremiah
* Arnold Oceng as Mamere
* Emmanuel Jal as Paul
* Kuoth Wiel as Abital
* Femi Oguns as Theo
* Corey Stoll as Jack
* Sarah Baker as Pamela

## Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 87% based on 86 reviews and an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Good Lie sacrifices real-life nuance in order to turn its true story into a Hollywood production, but the results still add up to a compelling, well-acted, and deeply moving drama." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 65 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews" from critics. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale.
Margaret Nagle won the Writers Guild of America Paul Selvin Award for her script to this film.

## Copyright and fraud lawsuit

In February 2015, the Foundation for Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan, Inc., acting on behalf of 54 Sudanese refugees, filed a lawsuit in Georgia against writer Margaret Nagle, Alcon Entertainment, and Imagine Entertainment. The suit claimed that the refugees were joint authors of the stories they had told Nagle in interviews that she had recorded and used to write the story. It also asserted that a joint venture agreement had been breached, with fraud and other issues arising from a promise of compensation from a producer.
The US District Judge initially granted the defendant's motion to dismiss but allowed the suit to be refiled if the plaintiffs subsequently and successfully registered the copyright of the interviews.
The court ultimately found that the refugees' statements supported the finding of copyright infringement and a permanent injunction on the movie. Before the case could be concluded, however, the plaintiffs' claims were settled out of court.