The Invention of Lying
The Invention of Lying is the latest offering from Mr Ricky Gervais. I like him, I like his sometimes awkward humor in which you sit there thinking I shouldn’t laugh but then do. I think he’s original and talented but even he doesn’t get everything right. The Invention of Lying is one such case, I liked the set up to the movie but I just didn’t feel the film worked.
Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais) lives in a world where people are 100% honest all the time, they can’t tell a lie, they don’t even know what one is. The movie beings with Mark as one of life’s losers, he loses his job, his apartment and is not having much luck in the love department either. However his life changes completely when he learns how to lie.
I like the concept it seemed an interesting idea but it is just poorly executed. The film feels like a whole range of ideas slung together with none of them being bad but it’s like a badly made jigsaw where none of the pieces quite fit properly. There are some good individual ideas for instance a short scene by two of the extra regulars is a good bit of fun but just doesn’t fit. The idea of not lying is a fine one but why would you randomly spurt out truths, I know it’s done for comic effect but it just feels overdone. You don’t meet someone and say ‘Hi, you’re attractive, tall but I go for brunettes not blondes’. I’m not saying it should have all been removed because there was some funny stuff but as I say it was overdone and just felt like a whole load of lines to get laughs. I also thought the ‘taking the mickey out of religion’ stayed around too long and meant not enough time was spent on the plot. Again it started well but it just ended like how many laughs can I get out of this idea.
I just felt that the screenplay was written for laughs instead of a plot, that meant, yes, I laughed and it kept me entertained but I just don’t think it was a good movie. The movie was very much like my writing in this review, it gets to the point eventually but it is just randomly constructed so it’s hard to follow and lacks focus (if only I could write good English!). I hope Gervais write another movie and learns from the mistakes of this one because there are some great ideas and funny lines.
6
Ste
17th October 2009
15:23
One to queue up for future Love Film dvd watching then I guess. As a side note, is the film poster you’ve used above slightly stretched, or has Ricky Gervais’ face been heavily air brushed? Looks a bit odd, and slightly effeminate
Paul
17th October 2009
19:37
I don’t think it is stretched but I agree it looks a bit strange.
I did hear him saying in an interview that the poster was very air brushed and the poster where he is jumping is his head put on someone elses body. Not his choice (so he says) just Hollywood.