In a world where all that people speak is the truth, and nothing but the truth, the lying man is king...or so that's what perennial loser Mark (Ricky Gervais) thinks!
Written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson, The Invention of Lying is high concept film full of laughs.
In a world where everyone can only tell the truth... one guy finds that he can lie. And it changes his, and everyone else's, life.
Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais) and Anna McDoogles (Jennifer Garner) are set up on a date by a friend but it's painfully obvious that in terms of looks and career progression that Anna can do better than Mark.
The Invention of Lying is an intelligent, cerebral film. It's shrewdly constructed as well as fiendishly original. And whilst there are some narrative problems it nevertheless often borders on brilliance.
However just as Mark stumbles when faced with people asking him why he knows so much about death, the film also stumbles quite heavily at the point where the subplot of the man-in-the-sky is introduced.
Perhaps Gervais was struggling to find his characters anything else particularly interesting to do but the second act of the film is confused. Happily the ending rounds out the film nicely and by the end credits all the silliness of the middle third is forgiven and forgotten.
Some viewers may find the film frustrating as they may feel that if someone was unable to lie it does not necessarily follow that they would be forced to tell the truth, at least not in the way that some of the characters do in the film. How there is something wonderful here, in the fact that it's refreshing and also very funny to see people speaking so truthfully. I feel that the film constantly flirts with brilliance but perhaps never really achieves it absolutely.
Gervais manages to reign himself in more than usual and gives a straight performance, stripping away some of the guff that he often subjects us to. Even his laugh is toned down. What we might be witnessing is his transformation into a really quite decent actor.
So there are some faults, a stuttering middle act, and some odd plot twists but the set-up, and the first act, is glorious and there are plenty of genuine laughs throughout the rest of the film.
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Comedy directed by, co-written by and starring Ricky Gervais as Mark, a performer who tells the first lie in a world where people only tell the truth and lying has never before existed. Once he realises what he can achieve by lying, there is no stopping him. He uses his new found ability to advance his career and charm the girl of his dreams, Jennifer (Jennifer Garner) - who is completely out of his league - to much comic effect.
Ricky Gervais directs himself in THE INVENTION OF LYING a comedy in which everyone in the world tells the truth except for one misfit in the film industry who after discovering the act of lying milks it to become the world's most phenomenal performer Matthew Robinson co-directs from his own script that he and Gervais collaborated on Jennifer Garner Rob Lowe Jonah Hill and Louis CK are also featured in the stellar cast
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