The Invention of Lying - C+

In theaters. Rated PG-13, 100 minutes. Trailer.

On paper, The Invention of Lying looks like it would be among my favorite movies of the year: written, directed and starring Ricky Gervais as Mark Bellison with a supporting cast including Tina Fey and Jason Bateman (not to mention cameos from Ed Norton, Stephen Merchant and Philip Seymour Hoffman). Similarly, the concept sounds very interesting on paper: Mark lives in a modern day version of our world except no one can lie - he invents lying and essentially becomes god because of it. On screen, however, the film is occasionally hilarious, consistently weird and mostly disappointing. Click below for more LYING:



The film begins 'pre-lies', showing Mark living in the pristine truthful world and suffering because as a short, snub nose, fat man honesty can be brutal. His date with the successful and attractive Anna McDoogles (Jennifer Garner) showcases some of the downsides of truthfulness. His job as a screenwriter (they only write about historical occurences) goes south, and in his desperation for money he somehow tells a lie to get some. When his mother is dying and sad, he lies (depending on your perspective) and tells her about a heaven like place that you go instead of a big nothingness (which is the assumption in the film). This leads to Mark becoming basically an oracle of god and he has to explain (ie, make up) everything relating to god and explain it to the whole world.

His main goal is to gain the love of Anna, but she's programmed to pay attention to looks and can't accept a less than perfect physical specimen even though they are otherwise a great match. Therein lies part of the problem with the film. Gervais has me on the lying and the occasionally hilarious truthiness (a nursing home is called "a sad place for hopeless old people" and when he goes in the receptionist greets him with "are you here to abandon an old person"), but goes way off topic by making the film about outer appearance - what does that have to do with not lying? The romance with Garner never works at all, despite great acting from Garner. There are some decent explorations of the good that can come of lying (he tells a suicidal Jonah Hill that 'everything's gonna be alright') and the bad as well. Priest will like the scenes where Mark is having to essentially create heaven and god and then explain it to everyone while they pepper him with questions - it is an interesting theological exercise.

It is hard for me to believe Gervais directed this because the story and characters are so bad. His work on The Office and Extras is extraordinary, so I don't know why the transition to film has been so bumpy. This one stinks, but has about a dozen really good laughs for Gervais fans. One side note is that after being exposed to Louis CK on Parks and Rec and in this movie, I now realize that his mannerisms and way of speaking are exactly like Doc's. I'm just saying.