The Invention Of Lying

Although both writing and directorial credits are attributed to Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson, particularly with the former in the lead role The Invention of Lying feels very much like Gervais’s film (he was also a producer).

Gervais plays Mark Bellison a just-getting-by screenwriter who lives in world where falsehood is completely unknown. When Mark suddenly develops the ability to lie he uses his newfound skill for personal gain but things get out of control when to console his dying mother he starts talking about an after-life where everyone will he happy.

The concept behind The Invention of Lying is a very good one but therein lies a fundamental flaw - the film doesn’t do justice to it. It’s not just that in Bellison’s world people don’t lie, Not only do they have no notion of artifice, they say exactly what they are thinking. So there are no lies, but there’s also no imagination, no art, no flattery and no dissembling. And whatever anyone says is taken as literal truth.

It’s an intriguing idea because so much of our lives are built on falsehoods of one kind of another from social pleasantries to advertising to the greatest works of art. The Invention of Lying initially kicks some goals with this idea but gradually narrows its focus to religion once Mark comes up with the notion of “The Man In The Sky”, before really running out of steam and resolving into an inevitable and terribly lame rom-com ending (not that it is explained how or why the unprepossessing Mark initially came to be dating a hot babe in the form of Jennifer Garner).

Given that you don’t have a problem with his familiar schtick, Gervais is engaging and there are some amusing moments both positive and negative to do with ability (in Mark’s case) or inability (in everyone else’s) to tell a lie. And the centre-piece of religion-as-lie (albeit a comforting one) has a nice satirical edge to it (in one of the funniest scenes Mark uses empty pizza boxes instead of stone tablets to relay his message to the multitudes.

But what is wanting here is some kind of sustained thesis such as The Truman Show (1998) instead of a series of more or less effective pot-shots (like Liar, Liar, 1997) peppered with cameos from people such as Tina Fey, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Louis C.K., and Gervais's The Office/Extras co-writer, Stephen Merchant.

Available from: Shock Entertainment

 

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