The Invention of Lying: Review By Rama's SCREEN

--Rama's SCREEN--

THE INVENTION OF LYING, in my book, is a comedy classic. It’s hilarious and brilliant. It’s unfortunate many won’t be able to embrace it. I think it’s only funny if you like Ricky Gervais’ British original version of The Office, if you’re familiar with his sense of humor because if you think… Steve Carell’s American version of The Office series is the better one, then you’d find THE INVENTION OF LYING to be just another average dramedy.

It’s kinda like Bruce Almighty but a complete opposite. If Bruce tries to use his godly power for his self-benefit, Mark (Gervais) actually tries to use his discovery, telling lies, to help others but the road to hell is paved with good intentions, sooner or later, Mark’s lies for the good of mankind becomes the thing that makes him even more miserable and lonely than when he first started and people goes back to the way they were. A couple that argues about love still finds themselves arguing but it’s now about who gets to have a mansion after they die.

Ricky Gervais is a comic genius, that’s old news if we’ve been following his career but this is definitely an improvement considering Ghost Town was a flop. As the depressed Mark, who’s convinced he comes from a long line of losers, Gervais successfully gets us to sympathize while THE INVENTION OF LYING keeps reminding us of how he’s fat and has snubby noses. A very subtle directing job with his friend Matthew Robinson whom he also co-wrote the movie with but if there’s one weakness is the movie’s rather slow evolution from comedy to dramedy to romantic comedy to romantic drama. That is the only reason why THE INVENTION OF LYING is not necessarily a laugh out loud riot comedy, some may find it trying too hard to be dramatic. But that’s where I think the brain and the heart of this movie are located. In the end it doesn’t show how Mark (Gervais) can fix the people’s situation or the giant mess that he’s made or the wrong mindset he’s caused his friends to have, because it just focuses on Mark and Anna, well-played by Jennifer Garner by the way, her obsession with genetic match-up is hilarious. All of the special guest star cameos is a treat, you’d be surprised at how many A-list names want to work with Gervais even if it’s just for a few minutes of screen time.

THE INVENTION OF LYING is a smart comedy because the jokes are more than just barfing, farting, and drinking.. it has those aspects and more but the concept is absolutely brilliant because not only does it show you the advantages one can do being the only liar around but it mocks what lies can do in general, it’s practically a satire the effects that lies have on a person or society. When Mark (Gervais) wrote the hilarious ten commandments on the pizza boxes tablets, every time he announces one lie, it spins a question and then he’d have to come up with another lie to respond but then it gives birth to another question and the lies get bigger, o what a tangled web we weave

In a way THE INVENTION OF LYING makes fun of humans need for a higher being, that we’d tell ourselves just about anything to keep ourselves from being scared and that’s also where the beauty of lies can come into play. The world full of truthful people may not be as fun as we think it’d be, although THE INVENTION OF LYING does exaggerate by making the characters speak out loud of every little single thing they’re thinking about. In a very twisted way, a bit of a lie here and there actually means well compared to the truth that doesn’t bring hope and only hurts feelings.

Some may find this to be sacrilegious due to the constant comment about the man in the sky, a church called the quiet place with Mark’s mural instead of the Lord, and the whole mansion thing is a Christian concept,…but it pokes fun at people’s dependency on their religion because they’re too afraid to make their own choices.

--Rama's SCREEN--