Imagine a world where there is nothing but brutal honesty. Everyone speaks their mind. If they think your fat and ugly, they’ll tell you. The waiter in a restaurant takes a sip out of your cocktail, he’ll tell you. There is no such thing as lying or something that is not true. As a matter of fact they don’t even have the words for lies.Welcome then to the latest offering from Ricky Gervais. Incidentally, this will be the best review you will read or hear.
Mark Bellison (Gervais) is a writer who has a pretty bland life it has to be said. He’s over weight, albeit slightly and is not the most attractive bloke in the universe. He goes on a date with Jennifer Garner who tells him straight up that she wont sleep with him. From there he gets fired from his writing job and subsequently gets a knock on the door from his landlord, looking for this rent, which is 800 bucks. He has a day to get his stuff together and get out. So, off he pops to the bank to withdraw all his savings which are around $300. The banking system is offline and he asks to withdraw $800. As he does the system comes back online and the bank teller hands over the $800 as the system must have made a mistake. So he has told the first lie ever. And why wouldn’t anyone believe him. No one lies, everything you say is taken as Gospel. And that's the gist of the story basically. I don’t want to give too much away here, but he does go off and invent a few clichés like no sex before marriage and religion in its simplest form.
The Invention of Lying is quite a bland looking movie and at times it looks like a Public Service Video from the 70’s. But maybe this is just to indicate that the world might be a bland place if no one told lies. That said, you would think it would be a far brighter and happier place.As for the cast, well Jennifer Garner is out of place here. Her constant, horse shaped smile made me want to cringe every time she came on screen as the love interest. Jonah Hill plays a suicidal loser neighbour, and is subtly brilliant.I’m not a fan of Ricky Gervais to be honest, but he puts in a solid performance here and he will start tugging at your heart strings like King Kong, around half way through the movie. And its at this point that the movie moves away from the straight up comedy. It throws plenty of questions and what if’s at the viewer and then ambles along to its predictable ending. As a matter of fact I left the Invention of Lying questioning my own mortality and others around me, which is a bizarre feeling to get from a movie that is coined as a comedy. But that's no bad thing. Speaking of comedy, there is little here that will make you roar with laughter, but there is plenty that will force a half smile as it is quite smart and quirky from time to time.
The Invention of Lying plods along nicely and while you wont choke on your coke while watching the movie, it's; and this surprised me, a semi solid piece of thought inducing entertainment. Sure it has plenty of plot holes when you actually think about it, but you’ll only worry about these afterwards. Ricky Gervais may be an acquired taste for some, but the Invention of Lying makes him far more digestible than ever before.
Mark Bellison (Gervais) is a writer who has a pretty bland life it has to be said. He’s over weight, albeit slightly and is not the most attractive bloke in the universe. He goes on a date with Jennifer Garner who tells him straight up that she wont sleep with him. From there he gets fired from his writing job and subsequently gets a knock on the door from his landlord, looking for this rent, which is 800 bucks. He has a day to get his stuff together and get out. So, off he pops to the bank to withdraw all his savings which are around $300. The banking system is offline and he asks to withdraw $800. As he does the system comes back online and the bank teller hands over the $800 as the system must have made a mistake. So he has told the first lie ever. And why wouldn’t anyone believe him. No one lies, everything you say is taken as Gospel. And that's the gist of the story basically. I don’t want to give too much away here, but he does go off and invent a few clichés like no sex before marriage and religion in its simplest form.
The Invention of Lying is quite a bland looking movie and at times it looks like a Public Service Video from the 70’s. But maybe this is just to indicate that the world might be a bland place if no one told lies. That said, you would think it would be a far brighter and happier place.As for the cast, well Jennifer Garner is out of place here. Her constant, horse shaped smile made me want to cringe every time she came on screen as the love interest. Jonah Hill plays a suicidal loser neighbour, and is subtly brilliant.I’m not a fan of Ricky Gervais to be honest, but he puts in a solid performance here and he will start tugging at your heart strings like King Kong, around half way through the movie. And its at this point that the movie moves away from the straight up comedy. It throws plenty of questions and what if’s at the viewer and then ambles along to its predictable ending. As a matter of fact I left the Invention of Lying questioning my own mortality and others around me, which is a bizarre feeling to get from a movie that is coined as a comedy. But that's no bad thing. Speaking of comedy, there is little here that will make you roar with laughter, but there is plenty that will force a half smile as it is quite smart and quirky from time to time.
The Invention of Lying plods along nicely and while you wont choke on your coke while watching the movie, it's; and this surprised me, a semi solid piece of thought inducing entertainment. Sure it has plenty of plot holes when you actually think about it, but you’ll only worry about these afterwards. Ricky Gervais may be an acquired taste for some, but the Invention of Lying makes him far more digestible than ever before.
