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The Good Lie

The Good Lie

Drama · 2014

A young refugee of the Sudanese Civil War who wins a lottery for relocation to the United States with three other lost boys. Encountering the modern world for the first time, they develop an unlikely friendship with a brash American woman assigned to help them, but the young man struggles to adjust to this new life and his feelings of guilt about the brother he left behind.

Movie details

The Good Lie

“Miracles are made by people who refuse to stop believing.”

2014 Drama 1h 50m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.4 / 10

34.7K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

85 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

65 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

7.5 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

A young refugee of the Sudanese Civil War who wins a lottery for relocation to the United States with three other lost boys. Encountering the modern world for the first time, they develop an unlikely friendship with a brash American woman assigned to help them, but the young man struggles to adjust to this new life and his feelings of guilt about the brother he left behind.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Good Lie?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Philippe Falardeau

Written by

Margaret Nagle

Reese Witherspoon

Reese Witherspoon

Carrie Davis

Corey Stoll

Corey Stoll

Jack

Arnold Oceng

Arnold Oceng

Mamere

Ger Duany

Ger Duany

Jeremiah

Thad Luckinbill

Thad Luckinbill

Matt

Afemo Omilami

Afemo Omilami

Dr. Monyang

Sarah Baker

Sarah Baker

Pamela Lowi

Court is in session

Put The Good Lie on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Ambition earns the room.”

The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Importance has entered the chat.”

The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.