Grade: B-The Invention Of Lying is a comedy about a world where nobody can lie. It is a very interesting world where people say exactly what's on their mind no matter how harsh it can be. It is a world where the blockbuster movies are just a guy sitting in a chair reading a "script" about certain historical events. The movie follows a man, Mark, who is a screenwriter for just such films. Mark appears to be a sad pathetic little man. He is unlucky at love and it seems everybody at his work hates him. One day, as he's about to be evicted from his apartment, he discovers that he can lie. He then starts to use this ability for his own personal gain. One day, while his mother is dieing, he tells her that there is an afterlife and that she has nothing to fear. Word of this gets out and things quickly get out of hand as he makes bigger and bigger lies to calm the public.
This movie was pretty funny but I have to admit, I think it would work better as a skit on SNL rather than a full length movie. The brutal honesty of people was funny at first but got old after a while. It was entertaining and funny after Mark first realizes that he can lie and he's trying to tell his friends about it but every lie he tells they just believe. One of the funniest parts of the movie to me were the advertisements. For instance; Coke: We're very famous. And my personal favorite; Pepsi: for when they don't have Coke. The movie does get interesting when he starts making lies about "the invisible man in the sky" and basically invents religion. Some people will probably take offense to that part of the movie but I thought it was great.
Ricky Gervais (Ghost Town, Stardust) plays the lead role of Mark. I've always liked Gervais, I feel that he has perfect delivery and timing and this movie was no exception, his character was very funny. Jennifer Garner (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, Catch and Release) plays Anna, a girl mark has had a crush on and is trying to get into a relationship with. I don't care much for Garner but she worked for this role and she had her moments where she was pretty funny. Rob Lowe (Wayne's World, TV's The West Wing) makes a bit of a comeback in this movie. Lowe has always been pretty funny and does great with these comedy bad guys, I really enjoyed his role. Louis C.K. plays Marks best friend and he is surprisingly unfunny in this movie. Tina Fey is in it for a little bit and she was pretty funny. This movie also featured some seemingly random, and rather small, appearances by Jeffrey Tambor, Jason Bateman, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Edward Norton.
Overall, this movie was pretty funny and worth watching but I might have to recommend waiting to rent it on DVD because it really just wasn't all that great.
Great quote: "Our children will be fat and have stubby little noses."
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