I am a huge fan of Ricky Gervais. I’ve seen and enjoyed every episode of “The Office” and “Extras” and every stand-up comedy DVD he’s performed. I’ve listened to every episode of his old radio program and his series of podcasts and audiobooks. He is my favorite comedian. I’m saying this because I want you to understand how disappointed I am with “The Invention of Lying,” the first feature film he both co-directed and co-wrote.
The movie starts with a brilliant idea, but this idea is blandly spelled out in the redundant and boring opening voiceover. This was the first indication that Gervais and fellow writer-director Matthew Robinson would not go nearly as deep as I had hoped with this premise. Anyway, the idea is this: the movie takes place in a world where there is no such concept as lying. Comedy gold, right? However, there is a significant clause that did not appear in the trailers: No one has any internal censor. They insult freely and without reservation, or give far too much information about their own personal lives. The opening narration claims “the human race has never evolved the ability to tell a lie,” but I don’t see how this relates to everyone’s lack of tact. A man tells his boss he won’t be coming into work that day because he “hates it there.” That’s just stupid. I guess this world never invented half-truths, either. Unfortunately, most of the jokes in the movie stem from this second quirk, and almost all of them are not funny. I could only think of two short scenes that actually stood out to me as funny, and together, they only lasted about three minutes.
In this brutally honest world, the fat little losers have even lower self-esteem than they do in real life, since everyone insults them on a daily basis. Our protagonist is Mark Bellison (Gervais), one of these losers. Life is predictably hard for him. Apart from the insults, he can’t get his dream girl because she very frankly tells him that she does not want fat little snub-nosed kids. His life changes for the better when he inadvertently tells the first lie ever. He is now the most powerful man in the world. He is not completely immoral. He refuses to use his power to get his dream girl, preferring for her to actually love him instead of telling her that he is the most attractive man who ever lived. The power doesn’t corrupt him for about 45 minutes. Corrupt him it does, though.
Mark’s biggest impact on this world starts sweet enough: He comforts his dying mother, who is terrified of nothingness, by telling her that after a person dies, he or she travels to a wonderful place where everyone gets a mansion. He has just invented the first religion in this world of solid facts. Gervais has done a very audacious thing here. He is essentially saying that religion is a very kind lie. Gervais claims that the message of this movie is that lying can sometimes be good, that the world needs lies to balance out stark truths. Fair enough.
Gervais is a legitimately good actor, which is a shame since the lines he’s written for himself are very cheesy or dull. Jennifer Garner is quite drab as Anna, Mark’s love interest. Gervais and Garner have no chemistry whatsoever, making all of their scenes look like recitations instead of two people having a conversation. There are many, many cameos from famous celebrities, but none of them made me laugh. These feel like they were shoe-horned in for no reason other than to let the audience know that these actors really wanted some more money.
“The Invention of Lying” cannot decide what sort of comedy it wants to be. It tries to be a romantic comedy without providing any sort of emotional connection. It tries to be a comedy with a moral, but the message is to weakly presented to be readily apparent to anyone. This movie is the first major project Gervais has worked on without Stephen Merchant, his writing and directing partner from many of his most celebrated projects. “The Invention of Lying” lacks the wit of Gervais and Merchant’s previous works, and maybe one cannot function properly without the other. It really is a shame.
“The Invention of Lying” is now available on DVD and Blu-ray. Watch the trailer at the official website.
