723. The Invention Of Lying (2009)

Starring: Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Rob Lowe

Director: Ricky Gervais, Matthew Robinson

Running Time: 100 mins

The Invention Of Lying is an American film about a world where people can only tell the absolute truth, until one man discovers the ability to tell a lie, and finds that it opens him up to infinite possibilities.

Well, this film has a nice, simple concept that allows for a lot of fun, and while the writing is a bit poor, and the performances are also under-par, this has a really weird atmosphere to it, almost taking on the form of a superhero movie, but maintaining a sort of rom-com format.

That’s the one thing that did annoy me, this film just had a bit too much romance in it. That story was funny at first, but it does get dragged out a bit, and whenever it becomes the main point of focus, it just feels gut-wrenchingly cheesy.

Also, I wasn’t a big fan of the screenplay itself. Yes, there were quite a few big laughs throughout, and it’s all very punchy, but the story is so overly simplistic, and in effect actually doesn’t make any sense, leaving you quite confused as to what you just watched when you come to the end of the film.

Performances-wise, they’re all just the generic ones you get in your average rom-com. Jennifer Garner was very one-dimensional, Louis C.K. and Jonah Hill were really boring, and Ricky Gervais, much like most of the stuff that he’s been a part of on the big screen, was just annoying. (In fact, the best performances in this film were definitely Stephen Merchant and Shaun Williamson, in one of the most epic cameos I’ve seen in a while!)

Despite all that, however, this film is pretty entertaining and seemingly innocent in the way that it just supposes you can do anything by telling a lie, however I think I’ve found a major issue with the entire story (this is a joke).

What does lying mean? The majority of the film and its main jokes revolve around people just saying what’s on their mind, but does not saying what you’re thinking mean you’re lying? WHO KNOWS?

Anyway, that doesn’t matter, this is a simple, fun comedy, however it’s a relatively poorly put together one, and that’s why it gets a 6.5.