Movie review: The truth about The Invention of Lying
Samantha Young ’10, Art Education
Artwork Editor
Title: The Invention of Lying
Date Released: October 2, 2009
Director: Ricky Gervais, Matthew Robinson
Starring: Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K., Christopher Guest, Rob Lowe, Tina Fey
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 99 minutes
Studio: Radar Pictures, Media Rights Capital
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Jennifer Garner, Rob Lowe, and Ricky Gervais (from left to right) star in the 2009 comedy The Invention of Lying.
What a fascinating idea: a world without lying, where there is no deceit, no exaggeration, and no manipulation. This is the premise of the movie, The Invention of Lying. It presents an existence where there is no risk of being deceived, but unfortunately there is also no such thing as imagination.
Furthermore, not only are people completely honest all the time, they are straightforward and audacious to the point of being blatantly offensive, not censoring or omitting anything. The plot of the movie, as its title implies, is about one man who, one day, told a lie.
This man is Mark Bellison, played by British actor and stand-up comedian, Ricky Gervais. We soon see that Bellison is unpopular and insecure – a “loser.” Even the woman he is in love with, Anna (Jennifer Garner), says he is “fat, has a snub nose, and is therefore out of her league,” since he would be unable to give her any attractive offspring. Although she says this with an outwardly sweet tone and a winning smile, I wasn’t fooled. I kept asking myself throughout the entirety of the film why Bellison would want to be with her so badly.
Does this sound like every other Hollywood romantic comedy or what? Looking past this, I waited with bated breath to find out what Bellison would do as he began to understand how he could use his newfound ability of lying. Things get pretty chaotic when he makes up ideas about the afterlife and the “Man in the Sky.” Although he did not intend these lies to be for anyone but his mother, who was dying in the hospital, some of the nurses and doctors overheard.
Soon, the masses are banging on his door to get answers. Bellison finds himself having to come up with stories about the “Man in the Sky,” who he says speaks to him alone and tells him the future and what you have to do to get into the “good place” and avoid the “bad place.”
The film then became a vehicle for Gervais, the writer and director, to project his personal ideologies onto the screen, completely attacking and mocking religion, Christianity in particular.
At one point, Bellison holds up pizza boxes, which are obviously supposed to represent the tablets given Moses at Mount Sinai, and reads off lists of what people should do to get to the “good place.” He says the “Man in the Sky” makes both bad and good things happen to people. This movie portrayed a legalistic view of Christianity – just following rules and not having anything to do with the love Jesus demonstrated.
I walked into the movie theater to see The Invention of Lying with very high expectations. The film’s storyline seemed original and Gervais is the creator of the British version of The Office, after all.
I was amused, and dare I say, mesmerized by the conceptual potential as the film began to unfold, but, not long into it I felt like I was waiting for something inspiring, moving, or heavy.
I watched a great, conceptual idea that never was and walked out of the theater disappointed. The Invention of Lying could have been much more effective in its critiques and possibly even uplifting, but instead, it did not live up to its potential, lacking in both comedic and dramatic quality and being misguided in its senseless and unnecessarily negative portrayal of religion.
