I love people that take chances and try something new. Without people like that, the film industry would suck. If filmmakers just played it safe, some of the greatest films ever made would never exist. It’s a bold move to roll the filmmaking dice and see what your new ideas get you. Unfortunately, “The Invention of Lying” craps out. This never looked like a good movie to me. Every time I saw the trailer, I thought it looked boring and unfunny. And now I feel the exact same way after actually seeing it. I admire its fearless ambition to try something new, but the pay-off really sucks.
The plot of this film involves an alternate reality where everybody tells the truth, and nobody ever speaks a lie. For example, if you’re on a date, the girl will tell you that your suit is gay and your breath stinks. And when she breaks up with you, she will say “it’s not me, it’s you”. But a writer named Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais) tells the world’s first lie and learns how to lie to use it for his own personal gain. To many people, that would sound like a very interesting and intriguing plot, but to me it sounds completely uninteresting. That’s exactly what I found this movie to be: boring and uninteresting. I did not care at all what was going to happen. And even though I had never seen a plot like that before, it didn’t engage me at all.
Ricky Gervais is a very talented guy. I (personally) am not a big fan of British comedy. I don’t get most of the humor and it just doesn’t strike me as funny. I have seen one of Gervais’ stand-up shows and I thought he was actually very funny. He is the best part of this movie. Even though I didn’t care what was going to happen plot-wise, it was always very amusing playing this character that learns how to lie. But besides Ricky Gervais (and an appearance by Fionnula Flanagan), the acting in this movie is terrible. I thought Jennifer Garner was very boring. She acts like she has no emotions and you see the look on her face that tells you she’s only in it for the check. After “13 Going on 30” (one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen), “Catch and Release”, and “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past”, she should just stop doing these light-hearted comedies. She was a bad-ass motherfucker in “Alias”. Please God, do something like that again!
The script is also very unoriginal, because most of the jokes and sub-plots fell flat. Even if I wasn’t going to be blown away by the plot, I just wanted some jokes to ease my appetite. There are a ton of scenes where they could’ve had some great jokes, but those opportunities were destroyed by the moronic script and the dreadful execution of some of the scenes, especially those with Jennifer Garner. On the brighter side, there are a couple of moments that out a genuine smile on my face and I felt like I was enjoying myself. But there are very few of those moments.
Overall, “The Invention of Lying” is a very boring film that has little entertainment, and lots of unnecessary story. Seeing this at the theater is a waste of your money but if you really want to see it, wait for it to show on cable. C-
