The Invention of Lying

I truly did not think Hollywood could make a movie of this caliber
Wow. I was totally blown away. The last thing I actually expect Hollywood to do nowadays is make a movie that is thought provoking, tackles some truly profound issues about the human condition, and is funny to boot.

Ricky Gervais has won instant respect for me. I bet a friend before coming to Amazon (I rented the Blu-ray on Netflix) that there would be a bunch of 1 star reviews. And that none of them would actually be about the film per se or its quality but would be religious peoplem who, get offended when someone asks them to think about what they say they believe and why.

Gervais ends up examining 2 aspects of the human condition, lying and religion. What would a world be like where people simply not only did not but could not lie. You get a number of humorous situations from this. It makes you think about the role of 'social lying' in particular. Manners, in a way, for lack of a better word

Now on to religion. I think Gervais hit on 2 issues that...

Truly spectacular--but in an odd sense
This film plays out like a British reality TV show. It just feels a bit off, but bear with it. That is part of its charm. Around 37 minutes into it (if memory serves), "WHAM!", it follows true reality and goes completely off script. That's all I can tell you. But here's why you really need to see this movie:

It's pure genius. The whole of it has a rather laid back feel, and the pacing is more a nice leisurely stroll through the park on a warm Autumn day than a Jason Bourne movie or the latest Transformers (both of which I enjoyed, but have nothing more to do with this review). This film draws you in slowly. For some of you it may seem a bit dry and boring, even pedantic at first--stay with it! This is the evolution of personal existence. This is real life as it happens. We go through our days performing our daily rituals and fulfilling our self-imposed duties and then we see something shiny and we pick it up, and suddenly the world starts to find color. This shiny new thing...

Funny but flawed
If the Amazon reviewing system let me give half stars, I would give this 3.5. 3 feels too low for it, but I just can't bring myself to give out a 4. This movie has a fantastic premise - nobody is capable of lying, which gives for some funny lines and great situations. What brought down the star rating was the ending, which to me, felt very cliched.

One thing I can say is that it'd be great if the ads had more truth in them. I loved the way ads were presented in the movie, especially the Coke ad and the guy being all like, it's sweet brown water' and what not. The Pepsi bus ad was also funny, and the labels given to places often feel rather more appropriate than the ones we give them.

That there was no religion in this movie before is a simple and efficient truth - no one knows for sure that god is real, and if we could only speak the truth and nothing but, then the BS connected with religion would just disappear. This movie isn't so much a comedy as it's a...

Click to Editorial Reviews