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Friday's Movie Review

The Invention of Lying

Mark (Ricky Gervais) lives in a world where no one has developed the ability to lie yet.   Mark is a screen writer for a large film company, relegated to writing 13th century scripts.

 

His coworkers and superiors all find him boring, ugly and not too talented....in other words, a Loser.  

Of course since no one has the ability to lie, Mark is not surprised at how he is perceived, and he knows he's getting fired.   Everyone does....and he does.




His Personal life isn't any sweeter.  Women don't find him attractive, and of course they don't pretend to be kind about it.

When Mark doesn't have enough money to pay his rent, he decides to take out the little bit of money he does have out of the bank to help pay his moving out expenses.   The bank teller tells him she can't close his account out because the system is down, but she will give him his money if he tells her how much he has in his account.   Mark tells his first lie.....and gets enough money to pay his rent...no questions asked!

He lies his way to wealth and fame, telling really ridiculous lies.  

As his mother lay dying, he takes away her fears with lies about dying.  

He cheers up the depressed residents of the old folks home with lies.

As expected things spiral out of control as his lies start to snowball.  His biggest dilema is trying to get beautiful Anna (Jennifer Garner) to fall in  love with him instead of the conceited, handsome character played by Rob Lowe.

The movie loses some of it's comic appeal, and gets mushy and sentimental.   

I loved the premise but thought Ricky Gervais fell short of his comic potential.

I give the movie 3 stars.