Andrew McMurtryREVIEW: The Invention of Lying (2009)
December 4th 2009 01:38
“The Invention of Lying” is British comedy legend Ricky Gervais’ new film about a world where everyone has to tell the blunt and painful truth. It’s a difficult concept to imagine in our world especially since we are so ingrained with all sorts of lying in our lives. Gervais and co-writer/director Matthew Robinson’s script seemed hell bent on hitting on all sorts of lying being eliminated and thus no one seems to have a though without verbalising it. They’ve taken out all chances of a lie of omission, which is clever but annoying at the same time as everyone is so shallow and mean when they tell the painful truth. That is until unassuming Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais) tells the worlds first lie. It’s a good concept and with cameos from Jeffrey Tambor, Jonah Hill, Tina Fey, Jason Bateman and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, it is set to be a classic if done right.
We first meet Mark as he knocks on the door of a date Anna McDoogles (Jennifer Garner). He goes in and they have an awkward conversation, mostly looking at the awkward subtext of conversations of real life. And while Anna is completely blunt, Mark is down on himself as a tubby, snub nosed loser. Worse than that, he knows he’s going to get fired the next day as his job as a screenwriter for the big movie company, Lecture Films, which was a great idea. It was one of the ideas I loved the most, because people can’t lie, you can’t have actors and scripts have to be written about history and the movies are of readers reading out the history. Another thing in a world where no one can lie, what can advertisers do? Cokes tag in the movie is the very truthful “It’s very famous” while the main competitor, Pepsi’s tag is “When they don’t have Coke”. Anyway, after being fired, he gets hit up for $800 of rent, which he doesn’t have. Evicted he goes to the bank and tries to take out the rest of his account so he can move out. This is where the magic happens and the real story begins. After telling several lies, he gets himself into a big mess, where he comes up with the idea of the Man in the Sky who decides everything good or bad in life.
It’s an interesting idea but very cynical on the ideas of dating, marriage and religion especially. It is great that, although he can lie, Mark is unhappy after achieving fame from his deeds. But does everyone really look at dating and subsequent marriage as just a way to find a person who could give their kids the best genetic attributes? I don’t think so. There are so many people batting way above their average in general society for that to be true. Another thing is, even though I’m not the biggest fan of religion, it does give a lot of people a lot of comfort to believe in the afterlife, which is shown in the movie. But the man in the sky is a bit pessimistic. I guess it’s just the British way to look at everything through cynical glasses. And Ricky Gervais is the king of cyn.
Morality is another thing. When he takes a girl top a hotel room because he tells her the world will end unless they have sex right then, he feels guilty. So it was good he wasn’t completely unscrupulous, although he did steal quite a lot of money from banks and casinos, even though he used some of it to help some other people out. But really, when it comes to telling the truth, everyone is guilty of lies of omission. Just because they had to tell the truth didn’t mean they were bound to saying whatever popped into their brains. When Rob Lowe’s Brad Kessler says “I’ve always hated you” to Mark, who’s just been sacked, is heartless and they’re making the truth seem more brutal than lies could ever be. Sometimes it would be nice in that world. At least you would know what people really think of you. It is guiltily funny sometimes with things like a nursing home being “A Sad Place for Hopeless Old People”.
The jokes in the invention of lying are a bit hit and miss. And there were no real laugh out loud moments when the crowd was all laughing. Ricky Gervais is an incredibly clever comedian and writer who had a good idea and had the right story. He just missed with the jokes a little bit. But this film will help him as he continues to break into American cinema. While Americans don’t seem to get the British humour, he seems to have adapted his material slightly. It was nice to see him do a bit more serious acting, especially as he tried to win back Anna, but Jonah Hill’s Frank brought the film down a little as did Louis C. K’s Greg as Mark’s friends. It just broke the flow of the film. However, it is enjoyable if a little bit forgettable. Not that it’s bad, especially for a first feature directing job for both Gervais and Robinson, just that it isn’t something that will stick out in most peoples memories. I’d give it 2.5 out of 5.
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