If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.
I've never not liked a Ron Howard film. Actually, I don't think you can go wrong going to see something he put his name on, unless you're a total asshole. The Good Lie is billed as Quebecois director Philippe Falardeau's film, but it really made sense to me in the closing credits when I saw Ron Howard billed first under "producer." It's that kind of movie.
First lesson: when you're playing outside with a bunch of other children at the beginning of a movie, and you hear the sound of helicopters coming in from the distance, it's not going to be a good day. The bunch of children escape their South Sudanese village as it's bombed, strafed and burned, circa 1991 I think. We follow them as they walk hundreds of miles to end up in a camp in Kenya, at least somewhat removed from the fighting, surviving are three boys and one girl. A decade later, still in the same damn camp, they finally make the list to go to America as refugees. They're exposed to technology and hilarity ensues, and strife, and jobs, and they struggle to keep their little group together.
This movie has funny bits. I know because I heard the audience laughing at them. And it was a big crowd. I saw it at the Princess of Wales theater, a big 2,000 seat venue, on Friday morning, and it was packed, and the audience loved this movie. It was the best part of seeing a movie with a whole bunch of people, all of us laughing at the funny parts together, and getting all teary at the teary parts together, and applauding when the credits start, and for each star, and applauding again when the credits end.
It's painted in pretty broad strokes, it's got a lot to cover to press all the right buttons, all your buttons, and it doesn't linger long on any one bit or any one character, and it glosses over anything that's not emotionally necessary for the story arc--it shows the refugees' initial confusion at modern Kansas City technology, but doesn't show any of the training the host organization must have given them to get them up to speed. It's a fine, high-quality piece of filmmaking, worth the price of admission and a decent way to spend two hours of your life watching it. I don't think I'd be thinking of it much again in the future, if I hadn't just spent $1.29 in iTunes on one of the songs from the soundtrack.
The reason the film was playing in the big A-list venue, normally reserved for stage plays, is that it has Reese Witherspoon. It doesn't star her, even she admits the movie is about the Sudanese characters, not her. But having a real American Hollywood star is a huge draw, even here up in the far reaches of the parochial Canadian wilderness. It's one of two films she has here at tiff., and I sort of wonder if she isn't making an effort to re-establish her filmmaking creds a.k.a. "I'm more than just a bitchy diva movie star" in the wake of that DUI incident ("Do you know who I am?"). I don't blame her, and it's a pretty good way to atone, I just sort of wonder. The first thing I ever saw her in was Election, so I already associate her with independent cinema.
Here's the trailer. Watch it and just tell me you don't get misty-eyed. Ron Howard.
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