“The Invention of Lying” stars Ricky Gervais as Mark Bellison, an all around loser who is stuck in an unrealistic world. It’s a world in which no one can lie. There is no fiction, imagination or, apparently, mind censors. There is nothing to stop people from saying the first thing that comes into their mind. Personally I think they went a little too far with this concept. Does the ability to lie tie into the ability to weigh your words? The words seem to go from brain to mouth with nothing to stop it. Do these characters know the phrase ‘if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all?’
Gervais is a funny actor and unfortunately this movie makes me feel embarrassed for him. He is insulted by everyone until he starts making fun of himself unsuccessfully. His other movie, “Ghost Town,” showed him at his funniest. He was cynical and grumpy but funny when he tried to be anything else. In this movie, however, he is self-pitying and every bit a loser like the rest of the world thinks he is. He is turned down by the woman of his dreams, played by Jennifer Garner, because she can’t picture herself having kids that will inherit his genes.
The fact that there is no fiction is done strangely. There are movies but they are history lectures read by one reader for about the length of a movie. It’s not a funny plot point, just weird. These lectures only serve to give Gervais’ character a job. He is one of the screenwriters for these lectures. Each screenwriter is assigned a certain century and they get all their material from documents from that time period. Bellison’s century is the one surrounding the Black Plague: the worst century to write about. The movie also stars Rob Lowe as Brad Kessler, a rival screenwriter. Kessler is everything Bellison isn’t by being both attractive and successful. The movie is full of famous actors. Tina Fey, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Jeffrey Tambor all play small roles.
One word sums up this entire movie: awkward. There is very little emotion in the delivery of the lines. The plot takes on a life of its own in the middle of the movie that is very good but completely different from what the movie started with. They aimed way too high and fell so very short with many things.