The Invention of Lying: Review

The Invention of Lying: Review

This film, written and directed by, and starring Ricky Gervais, really should have been called The Invention of Not Blurting Out.

The story starts with an interesting premise; it is set in a world in which no-one lies, and everyone tells the truth.  Ricky Gervais’ character, Mark, is a screen writer, although he is not very good at his job, and is sacked.  Consequently, he has no money, and stands to be evicted from his flat.  That is until he visits the bank to withdraw all his money to pay for a van to move his belongings out of his flat.  The bank’s computers are down, so there is no way for the teller to know how much money Mark has.  Since no-one has ever lied, she simply asks him how much money he has in the account.  Mark actually has $300 – but somehow he says $800, the first time anyone has ever said a lie.

Mark is therefore able to pay his rent and stay in his flat.  He uses his new found talent for “saying something that isn’t” to benefit those who are in need of friendship.  He also helps a homeless man to get a lot of money from the bank.

During all of this, Mark has had his eyes on Anna, a beautiful woman, who he knows is out of his league.  At the beginning of the film, he goes on a date with her, but she makes it clear to him that she doesn’t fancy him, and will not be taking things any further.  Once he has mastered the art of lying, however, he tries his luck again – and manages to build a friendship with her, if nothing more.

The turning point for the film came when Mark’s mother was dying.  She is petrified about an eternity of nothing, so Mark invents a story about a man in the sky, and how she is going to go somewhere even better where she will live in a mansion and see all those who she has loved once more.  His mother dies happy.

Unfortunately, some of the hospital staff overhear Mark, and news soon gets out that he knows about what happens after death.  The next day, he is mobbed as everyone wants to hear what the future holds for them.  People are convinced that Mark is a prophet for the Man in the Sky.  He tells them that they are allowed to do three things wrong, and when they will die everyone will be given a mansion.

As the film develops, Anna develops a relationship with Brad, a rival screen writer, since she believes that he is a better genetic match, and she doesn’t want her children to grow up to be chubby and snub-nosed like Mark.

Anna subsequently is going to get married to Brad, but at the ceremony, when the minister asks if anyone objects, Mark speaks up.  Anna asks Mark to tell her what the Man in the Sky wants for them both.  Mark refuses to say anything, and leaves.  Anna, however, follows him.  Mark reveals that he invented the Man in the Sky to make his mother happy, and that things got out of control.  Anna asks why, if Mark could lie, he didn’t simply tell her that being rich could change one’s genetics; that way, he could have married her.  He says that he didn’t want to lie to her.

At that point, Anna decides that she wants to be with Mark, they get married, and live happily ever after.

The Invention of Lying starts off very well.  The premise that no-one has ever told a lie is an interesting one, and the comic potential of this is exploited to the full.  Since no-one can lie, there is no fiction, and so Mark’s screen writing career sees him writing scripts for actors to simply read out; anything else would be a lie.  A couple of very funny points emerge related to advertising; we see a Coke advert in which the presenter tells the viewer that Coke is esentially just brown sugar water, and is a little on the sweet side.  The advert, rather than trying to persuade people to buy more Coke, is actually imploring them not to stop buying it.  We also see an advert for Pepsi on the side of a bus, with the slogan “for when they don’t sell Coke.”

As a traditional love story – boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, trouble ensues, boy and girl split up, boy and girl get back together again, boy and girl get married and live happily ever after – The Invention of Lying was very, well, traditional, and fitted the formula exactly.

As an original and inventive film, though, the story simply didn’t work.  I failed to see why, simply because people couldn’t lie, everyone simply blurted out what they were thinking.  Is it lying to hold back one’s thoughts for risk of offending?  I don’t think so.

As soon as Mark invented the Man in the Sky, the story took an extremely bizarre turn, and seemed to develop into a rather lame attack on religion.  The main philosophical viewpoint seemed to be that God is an invention intended to offer comfort to humankind, and wouldn’t exist in a world where no-one could lie.  At least if you’re going to attack religion, come up with something a little bit more original and less blunt than that!

Overall, the film was a bit of a waste of a novel idea.  Gervais could have done so much more with the concept, but seemed to run out of steam.  After the first half hour, the movie went downhill rapidly, descending into a thinly veiled attack on Christianity, and a dull will-he-get-the-girl love story.

If this is the best that the comic genius behind The Office and Extras can come up with, then perhaps he’d be better off forgetting about feature films, and sticking with what he’s good at – the television sitcom.