Changing The Social Order With a Terrific New Idea

In “The Invention of Lying,â€� comedian Ricky Gervais has created a world where everyone tells the plain truth, revealing their most embarrassing and depressing inner thoughts in an utterly matter-of-fact way. Because nobody can have their egos falsely boosted, the world is completely stratified between a small number of winners — those blessed with good looks and money — and everyone else, the losers who have their egos crushed constantly, all day long, by complete strangers who say things like “she’s out of your leagueâ€� before taking your drink order.  The losers know they have it coming to them, so glumly accept their lot.

   Mark Bellison, played by Gervais, is one of the losers, humiliated by his blind date, Anna (Jennifer Garner), and fired by his anxious boss from his job writing historical documentaries, straight history texts read by talking head actors. (Bellison had been assigned to the 13th century and nobody wanted to see shows about the Black Death.) Broke and on the verge of eviction, Bellison has a breakthrough. He realizes that he can say something “that isn’tâ€�  (the word “trueâ€� doesn’t exist because it doesn’t need to), and suddenly he is able to effortlessly manipulate the world around him.

   Hilarity, mostly, ensues. He quickly goes from helping the local homeless guy and the quarreling couple at the cafe to inventing all of religion, explaining “the man in the skyâ€� and the lovely place you go when you die to the rapt and believing populace.

   One of the funnier conceits of the film is that the world he creates for himself, once he can, is not so dramatically different from the one he had before. He becomes a very successful writer of boring documentaries about the 13th century. (And one of the inconsistencies is that he is able to populate his tales with flying saucers and ninjas. If nobody ever made up anything untrue before, how did he think of such things?)

   The film is populated by a host of very funny actors including Jason Bateman as a doctor who blithely tells Mark that his mom is about to die, but since it’s fajita night in the cafe teria, he should go grab a bite as soon as she does.  Even better, some of the actors go beyond the usual suspects. Jonah Hill and Tina Fey both have funny bits. And performers normally found in serious dramas such as Philip Seymour Hoffman, doing a hilarious turn as a bartender who accepts, wide-eyed, every lie Mark throws at him, and Edward Norton, as a traffic cop who explains exactly how much is required to bribe him.   Rob Lowe scores as the much more “genetically giftedâ€� head writer at Mark’s company, who tells him, “I don’t like you because there’s something about you that I don’t understand.â€� Brad becomes Mark’s competition in love as well as work - even after Mark becomes rich and successful, beautiful Anna still seeks a mate who can provide her with handsome children, and Brad fills the bill. Best of all is Gervais himself  —  a warm and surprisingly subtle screen presence.

    Funny as it is, there is plenty here to criticize: It’s still a lot easier for a fat, pug-nosed man to get the hot girl than the other way around.  (A chubby nerdy girl would have to a) get heaped with mean-spirited abuse and b) get a major makeover before she could get Rob Lowe.)  The movie is harsh and ugly to look at. All the actors look baggy and saggy. Maybe it’s intentional. Perhaps the cinemetographer refused to put the usual movie star gloss on familiar actors and lie about how they look. But combined with draggy and uneven pacing, over-repetition of a few lines and themes, and a heavy-handed score, it comes across as simple technical ineptitude.

   Despite these flaws, “The Invention of Lyingâ€� is laugh out loud funny and thought provoking as well. For his next project, maybe Gervais will take a fresh look at some of the other commandments as well!

The Invention of Lying is playing at the Regal Cinemas at the Poughkeepsie Galleria Mall. It is rated PG-13 for mild sexual situations and (apparently) a drug reference.