The Invention of Lying
The Invention of Lying written by and starring Ricky Gervais, takes us to a parallel world that looks suspiciously like any town USA (right down to the green backed legal tender) where telling anything but the truth is inconceivable. As a matter of fact being brutally honest overtakes every conversation so instead of polite banter people say exactly what is on their minds and then some. This is funny but it gets old fast. With subtlety Gervais delivers more than we usually get in the way of emotion. That gets mixed in with his trademark, easy to take British deadpan that has worked well in the cable show Extras. He plays Mark Bellison, a TV script writer which is a tedious profession is a world devoid of fiction. Television watches here only see actors reciting scripts based on history that despite being on another world is remarkably similar to life on earth. Unfortunately for Bellison he must write about the black plague years which isn’t a ratings magnet and he gets fired. That’s the least of his worries however as his mother is terminal and he can’t make a go of it with Anna McDoogles (Jennifer Garner) who is attracted to Mark even though she is clearly out of his league. Everything changes when Mark discovers that he can say things that are untrue which proves to be a powerful thing in a world devoid of guile. For the most part Gervais keeps logic fairly consistent in this abstract scenario but then veers off to make a bewildering comment about religion. He also gives credence to a personal axiom – beware of comedies with an all star cast of cameos. In this 100 minute film that feels longer we have cameos by Tina Fey, Jason Bateman, Christopher Guest and an uncredited Edward Norton along with minor supporting roles from Jeffrey Tambor and Rob Lowe. Sometimes my axiom is wrong but I’d be lying if I said that was the case here.