'The Good Lie' Trailer: Reese Witherspoon's 'The Blind Side'
Just a few hours after the Dear White People trailer landed online, The Good Lie trailer has arrived to give us a perfect example of the kind of film Dear White People is mocking.
Directed by Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar), the fact-based drama stars Reese Witherspoon as an American woman who opens her heart to three helpless Sudanese refugees (played by Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, and Emmanuel Jal). As she forges an unlikely friendship with these men, she learns some Very Important Life Lessons in the process.
To be totally fair, I haven't actually seen the movie yet so there's always a chance this will turn out to be slightly more nuanced than your typical white savior saga. But considering it's advertised as being "by the executive producer of The Blind Side," I'm not super optimistic. Watch The Good Lie trailer after the jump.
It's not that The Good Lie looks insincere or boring or incompetently made. It's just yet again, Hollywood seems to have found a way to make an international tragedy all about them. The focus, at least in the trailer, isn't on the courage and desperation of the men who've taken this difficult journey, but on how nice it was of Reese Witherspoon to help them out.
Sigh. Maybe the next trailer will be better. The Good Lie opens October 3. Corey Stoll, Sarah Baker, and Nyakuoth Weil also star.
They were known simply as "The Lost Boys."
Orphaned by the brutal Civil war in Sudan that began in 1983, these young victims traveled as many as a thousand miles on foot in search of safety. Fifteen years later, a humanitarian effort would bring 3600 lost boys and girls to America.
In "The Good Lie," Philippe Falardeau, (writer and director of the Oscar®- nominated Foreign Language film "Monsieur Lazhar") brings the story of their survival and triumph to life. Academy Award® winner Reese Witherspoon ("Walk the Line") stars alongside Sudanese actors Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal, and newcomer Nyakuoth Weil, many of whom were also children of war.
Mamere and Theo are sons of the Chief in their village in Southern Sudan. When an attack by the Northern militia destroys their home and kills their parents, eldest son Theo is forced to assume the role of Chief and lead a group of young survivors, including his sister Abital, away from harm. But the hostile, treacherous terrain has other dangers in store for them.