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Review of The Invention of Lying
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© Warner Bros. Pictures
To watch the advertising for The Invention of Lying, you would think the movie is about nothing more than a guy who is able to lie in a world where everyone else is only capable of telling the truth and accepting what everyone else says as truth. That's a solid idea to build a movie upon but you get the feeling that an hour and a half of only that would be pretty tiresome. Thankfully, Ricky Gervais' latest offering is something much more than that but it's undeniable that something is sorely lacking.
Gervais stars as Mark Bellison, a screenwriter who lives in that world and hates his life because of it. He's fat, depressed, depressing to be around, has a snub nose and everyone lets him now it right to his face (that's right, even the blunt, brutal and awful truth is told in this alternate reality). After it occurs to him one day to lie about how much money he has in his account, he begins to lie more and more for his own benefit. However, after he lies to his mother about the afterlife while she's on her death bed, word spreads quickly that Mark Bellison knows what happens to people when they die and he inadvertently creates religion.
From there, The Invention of Lying becomes a cunning and biting satire about religion and the purpose it serves. After this is realized, it's easy to see why Warner Bros. chose to leave that point out of the advertising campaign. The scene where Bellison is explaining his version of the ten commandments to the group of people who have gathered outside his apartment is particularly genius. However, even if Warner Bros. had chosen to make this film's skewering of religion the focal point of the trailers and commercials, it wouldn't change the fact that this film is ultimately a let down.
That's not to say it's a let down in the sense that it's a total waste of time, it's that this film should have been a lot funnier than it was as it moves rather slowly and the laughs don't happen as often as they should. Even numerous appearances from some of the funniest people around (Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, Christopher Guest, Jason Bateman, John Hodgman and Edward Norton earning the award for best cameo) doesn't help it become the kind of funny it could have been. Some laugh-out-loud moments are definitely present in this flick but they happen too far apart from each other. In the end, this film's premise is funnier than it's execution which is disappointing given that Gervais has created two of the greatest TV shows ever: The Office and Extras. Better luck next time, Ricky; save The Invention of Lying for DVD.
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