Sandy Kenyon reviews 'The Good Lie'

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Several new movies are arriving at theaters nationwide this weekend, including Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon's return to the big screen.

"The Good Lie" takes its title from "Huckleberry Finn," in which Mark Twain suggests that a lie is OK if it serves a noble purpose. To learn how it applies here, you will have to see the film, which begins 14 years ago in war-torn Africa.

The dawn of the new millennium was nothing to celebrate in Sudan, where a bloody civil war had torn the country apart by the year 2000, forcing children to flee a thousand miles to refugee camps.

There, the orphans came to be known as "the lost boys." Today, Emmanuel Jal is an actor and rapper. But in the 1990s, he was a child soldier who fled from the rebels, which makes his presence all the more meaningful.

"The Good Lie" tells the story of those who, like Jal, were re-located to the United States.

Her name may be above the title, but Reese Witherspoon signed on knowing that the real stars would be the actors of Sudanese descent.

Playing the woman who gets paid to help these guys find work, she hits just the right notes even when the script is hitting us over the head. Reuniting a sister with her brother at the time of year when gifts are exchanged is a little too obvious.

Less time watching liberals do good and a few more minutes spent on the severe challenges the refugees faced might have made for a better movie, but thanks to the cast, you can't fault its authenticity.

The film shows us a culture almost never seen on the big screen, and when the Sudanese begin to dance at a mass birthday party in their honor, it brings a tear the the viewer's eye.