The Good Lie
Warner Bros. | Release Date: October 3, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 16, 2014
While The Good Lie certainly doesn’t shy away from scenes designed to make us shake our heads at man’s inhumanity to man and scenes designed to make us dab at our eyes, it’s the kind of movie that earns those moments. Read full review
88
ObserverRex ReedOct 1, 2014
The heart of the film derives from the fact that the more they all get to know each other, the more they all mature and their differences blend. The title comes from a lesson in Huckleberry Finn—that a lie is good if it helps others, the way Huck lied to save Jim from the slave traders. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen HoldenOct 2, 2014
For all its softening, The Good Lie, like “Monsieur Lazhar,” has a core of decency, humanity and good will that feels authentic. You won’t curse yourself for occasionally tearing up. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinSep 11, 2014
The Good Lie is a touching, generous-hearted movie, sensitively directed by Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar) working with a smart, sly, long-gestated script by Margaret Nagle (Boardwalk Empire). Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaOct 3, 2014
It is a good thing these actors are charming enough that they aren’t too hampered by a long string of fish-out-of-water gags. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigOct 2, 2014
Lie is openhearted, earnest and well-intentioned. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsOct 2, 2014
A genuinely touching and occasionally powerful film, not least because the boys are so disinclined to pity themselves. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 2, 2014
In a bait-and-switch worthy of its title, The Good Lie may lure in viewers eager to see a Reese Witherspoon movie, but they’ll fall in love with something else entirely. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 2, 2014
Movies about cooperating Africans and Americans often take a condescending risk of great white saviors making everything better for poor black folks. The Good Lie isn't that sort of movie, except in its marketing. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickOct 1, 2014
The Good Lie may not be anything like Witherspoon’s version of “The Blind Side” (as the ads also imply), but it’s a heart-tugger that’s definitely worth seeing. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyOct 1, 2014
It's a deeply touching story about survival, perseverance, and hope. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreOct 1, 2014
Rambles a bit and telegraphs its ending. But its earnestness in reminding us of this story and just what America represents to the world’s rising tide of refugees, and why, makes it a winner, a valuable history lesson wrapped in a feel-good bow. Read full review
70
TimeRichard CorlissOct 3, 2014
The lumpiness of The Good Lie’s progression – from infancy to adulthood, and from the horrors of war to gentle social comedy and back again – proclaims a respect for facts and truths that can’t be molded into a smooth narrative. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyOct 2, 2014
The pieces don't always fit together as neatly as you might wish, but if you let it, The Good Lie's heartwarming soul will win you over. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 2, 2014
This is very much a mainstream movie meant to shine a light on the plight of people who were ignored for too long. For that reason alone, it's well worth seeing. Read full review
70
TheWrapJames RocchiOct 2, 2014
It works as well as it does precisely because of an intelligence, humanity and restraint we rarely see in Hollywood films. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 11, 2014
Falardeau actually spent time filming in Sudan for a completely different project back in 1994 before being forced to evacuate by the U.N., but he consciously decides not to rub our noses in tarted-up awfulness, opting for steady-footed lensing and subdued music, then trusting our imaginations to fill in the horrors. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesOct 1, 2014
Canadian director Philippe Falardeau (Oscar nominee for Monsieur Lazhar) films these early, subtitled scenes mostly with a documentarian’s observational remove and slightly shaky camera – an effective way to dramatize the horror of war without exploiting it, tarting it up with Hollywood techniques. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 27, 2014
The images in The Good Lie have the power to disturb but lack the gut-punch impact necessary to give us an immediate and lasting connection to the protagonists. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Simon HouptOct 3, 2014
A drama with honourable intentions that feels like a bit of a fib. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 2, 2014
The lack of`cheeseball overload is refreshing. I could tell the good lie and say the movie is perfect. It's not. It's often earnest to a fault and fearful of its deeper, darker implications. Still, you won't leave The Good Lie unmoved. Its heart really is in the right place. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezOct 2, 2014
This is a Hollywood-delivered chronicle of the immigrant experience that earns its justification through good will and tact. Read full review
60
Village VoiceErnest HardyOct 14, 2014
Despite its weighty material and some moving scenes (much of the Sudanese cast are survivors of the war), this aggressive crowd-pleaser is slighter than its subject matter deserves. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottOct 3, 2014
It's in the film's Africa-set scenes -- at the film's start and again in its closing 25 minutes or so -- when The Good Lie is at its best. This is where the story is at its most moving and rewarding. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 2, 2014
Reese Witherspoon is funny and touching as the scrappy Kansan who befriends the bewildered arrivals, and the movie's three Lost Boys, no longer lost or boys, are intensely appealing. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierOct 2, 2014
It’s hard to fault a movie like The Good Lie for its intentions. But it can be faulted for pandering, both to its subject and to audiences. Read full review
60
The DissolveScott TobiasOct 2, 2014
The small grace of The Good Lie, from Monsieur Lazhar director Philippe Falardeau, is that it fully recognizes the problem of telling stories of black hardship through the prism of white charity, and does everything it can to avoid those pitfalls. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichSep 30, 2014
For a while it’s a low-key fish-out-of-water comedy (with McDonald’s as one of its many obvious punch lines), then it morphs into a cumbrously sentimental tale of redemption. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyOct 1, 2014
It’s a sappy, but occasionally sensitive, coming-to-America story that hits all of the familiar beats. It has one very big problem, though, and she’s played by Reese Witherspoon. Read full review
25
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 11, 2014
The Good Lie is so manufactured around a particular dramatic blueprint that any sense of spontaneity, surprise and engagement are sucked right out of the picture. Read full review
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