The truth, the whole truth... (The Invention of Lying (DVD))

Member Name: FairyG

Product:	The Invention of Lying (DVD)
Date:	14/11/09 (53 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An original concept with some very funny bits

Disadvantages: The whole joke starts to wear off.

Ricky Gervais is the writer, director and star of this film, but although I like his style of humour, that's not entirely a good thing.

Mark (Ricky Gervais) lives in a world where everyone is truthful and the concept of lying is unheard of. There isn't even a word for it. Without even a little white lie to save anyone's feelings, everyone is brutally honest and Mark seems to be ultra sensitive. He feels it deeply when his date Jennifer (Jennifer Garner) tells him that she feels 'depressed and pessimistic about our date tonight'. His colleagues at the film production company he works for also dislike him and don't hesitate to tell him so. Rival scriptwriter Brad (Rob Lowe) is especially annoying as he is much more good looking than Mark, and makes sure he knows it. Unfortunately, Jennifer thinks so as well. On a day when everything is going particularly badly, Mark has a sudden inspiration and suddenly blurts out a lie. To his amazement he is believed absolutely and he realizes that telling lies could change his life forever.

Initially Mark's first idea is to make as much money as possible. But then things get out of hand when a whopping great lie becomes public and grows bigger and bigger as he expands on it.

It's a funny idea for a film that rapidly wears itself out after the first half an hour. We see all kinds of different scenarios where telling lies or at least embellishing the truth is usually so normal to us and these are the ones that raise a lot of laughs in the beginning. For instance the use of product placement in the film is highlighted in a way that's very funny. The fact that advertisers might actually have to tell the flat truth is an intriguing concept.

The really intriguing idea is that without lies there can't be any fiction - all movies in the film are straightforward narratives based on fact, without even actors. It's a bit of a subtle concept really for a film where everything else is totally lacking in subtlety, and I would have liked to see it developed further than it was. The whole film could have taken an entirely different direction.

However, the film veers off the subject of film-making and goes into an irreverent look at religion, becoming quite subversive along the way. I didn't find this offensive at all, but the humour did begin to fall flat in the middle of the film. It did pick up a bit towards the end, but never really recovered to the level of the first half an hour. It's a pity really, because it's a film full of all kinds of potential, and it really does make you think about the way we view things.

Jennifer Garner is quite good as a comedy actress and puts in a wonderfully straight-faced performance. She comes across as sweet but shallow. Some of her lines are quite funny, but the one big flaw is that she's saying things that are embarrassingly honest that she didn't actually have to say at all. It all starts to seem too contrived. It's a flaw throughout the film, that sometimes people blurt out truths that really didn't need to be said at all, as no-one asked them a question. Some of the remarks are quite sexual, so this is not a film to watch with children around unless you want to answer some very awkward questions.

Ricky Gervais plays his usual hesitant, put-upon, pedantic self, who is looked down on for being plump and plain. He's good in this, as it's all created to suit his style of humour, but also that's where the film falls down. It's really not strong enough to sustain the humour all the way through. Gervais was better in Ghost Town where his character was funny, but his style of humour didn't dominate the film, other characters were allowed to develop their own style.

Rob Lowe is quite funny in this as he is sending up his own good looks and the kind of character he would normally play. He's two dimensional though, and not very likeable, as he's just far too smug.

Overall it's a funny film, that's worth going to see if you want a laugh and you like Ricky Gervais. Some scenes are really laugh out loud funny. It just doesn't hang together as well as it could have though, so don't expect too much.

Written and Directed by: Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson
Running Time: 100 minutes
Certificate: 12A

Summary: Okay if you like Ricky Gervais