The Invention of Lying (2009)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

"The Invention of Lying" tells the story of a middle-aged writer, living in a world where no lie has ever been spoken. After a series of rather depressing events, he notices that by simply not telling the truth, he can earn a lot of personal profit, which rapidly gets him into some quite tricky situations.It is generally a clever idea to show the value of lies through a scenario where they're missing completely. Unfortunately, a lot of times it feels like there hasn't been much more than this concept as a basis for this film. There are indeed some very funny scenes, coming along with a few very clever predictions for this fictional scenario. However, some of the other gags are rather cheap and the whole part about religion seemed a bit too wanted. All in all this is a can-watch with some nice ideas under pretty interesting circumstances. Nothing you mustn't miss but surely not the worst comedy for a cozy tv evening.

Hard to believe that as I write, this is 9 years old. I was pointed to it by Avi Tuschman's book: Our Political Nature: The Evolutionary Origins of What Divides Us and bought the DVD.A satire on organized religion (but not amoral or without compassion), a satire on Kantian ethics, and the way some women and some men choose partners I found this deeply uncomfortable to watch - AND WELL WORTH IT. Not surprised some people left the cinema, I ended up watching much of it in 5 - 15 minute chunks mainly because of the cringe factor.The opening part of the film is definitely the funniest as people calmly offer their real thoughts and actions rather than polite platitudes. After that the film gets down to serious business and there are few laugh out loud moments. While the first lie emerges as a counter to job loss and potential eviction, we soon see lying being used to help the troubled, the homeless and street poor. The potential for happy myths to do real harm is touched on but not really explored, while the potential of happy myths to do some good is explored in a little more depth.For the most part the acting is excellent, though the Gervais monologue at his mother's headstone could have gone on the editor's floor. The music and choice of songs suited well and I certainly had no problem with the cinematography.If you can cope with some discomfort you will have some laughs, and certainly be left with something to think about and talk about.

I couldn't really follow the film on my first viewing because I was naming every well-known actor playing a bit part and the horrible sets - but on my second watch I realised that these sets - with modern elevators taking a long while to ascend or descend three floors - might just be meaningfully absurd.And speaking of the absurd... this is such a wonderful tale of the mythology of belief in a Judeo-Christian god. Nothingness is not an easy concept to accept and the promise of spending eternity in your own mansion with your loved ones is certainly reason to hasten one's death.Ricky Gervais brilliantly ridicules the myth-construct of these religions that surround us... and his characterisation of Jesus is hilarious.Just a wonderful and funny introduction to the world of atheism with the certainty that it takes lies to create myths and religions.

I loved this film for its ideas, its writing, and its characters.THE IDEASIn this film, Ricky Gervais imagines a very simple alternate universe: people have never evolved the ability to lie (or censor themselves). Throughout the story, needlessly said, it becomes much more complicated than that. First, he shows how dishonesty, when one man is capable of it, can be both morally bankrupt (inventing "The Black Plague," the fantastical, literally unbelievable story that makes him famous) as well as morally good (when he lies to the banker to procure a homeless man money), independently of the hugely suggestible nature of everyone else on this film. This immediately has real-world resonance.Second, I admired the clever, satirical, but overall succinct way he dove into the birth of religious faith (in this case contextualised as the Judeo-Christian faith): a grieving man, Mark, who doesn't want his agonising mother to be afraid of death, does a very human thing, which no one in this universe has been capable of doing before. He tells her a lie, invents heaven, for both their comforts. Now, the brilliant bit is that it doesn't feel like satire at all at this point: it feels real. Like this is a very probable hypothesis to explain why the concept of heaven arose. And I must agree with Ricky on this.The invention, of course, goes further. When Mark is pushed into explaining what he knows and how, though (funny how even gullible people seem to need some sort of evidence), he is backed against a wall with the whole of the human race patiently waiting on him, and comes up with "The Man In The Sky" (TMITS). The man who controls everything and both gives people cancer and cures them, capsizes boats and saves the drowning man. If it seems a half-arsed concept, is because, to Ricky, and most atheists like myself, it is. I would imagine the hilarious satire here is clumsy at best in the eyes of a theist, but, really, Ricky does a fantastic job of pinning down both the atheist take on the moral argument (people immediately need guidance on good and bad when faced with the knowledge of TMITS, when they haven't needed it for the whole of human evolution)as well as the problem of evil (TMITS "is kind of a good guy, but he's a prick, too"). In this universe, the rise of churches and diverging doctrines and everything else, of course, is not far off after the initial "discovery" of TMITS. Also funny how Mark creates hell out of basic annoyance at the people pressing him for answers.Finally, I thought another well-put idea of the film is that whilst morality is complex, and people can and do use lies for personal gain and for altruistic purposes, morality is ultimately and foremost, a human construct. Mark, for example, could have easily convinced Anna to get together romantically with him by answering "yes" when she asked him whether being rich and famous would affect the genetic material of their potential offspring. He could have said to Frank, his suicidal neighbour, that he thought him truthfully a loser. But he doesn't. His reaction is "no" to the first, and "killing yourself is a bad idea; let's hang out" to the second. Also, he's intellectually honest in another respect that makes him different from seemingly everyone else in the film: he allows himself to seek out the truth about people in depth, beyond their appearances. And since there is no external morality (TMITS is merely Mark's invention), these moral things he does must be a product of his human empathy, his sense of compassion, his recognition of sentience outside ourselves deserving of respect. It's a human construct.THE WRITINGNot much to say here. Ricky's smart-arse wit was there throughout. The callousness and hilarity of the truths and the absurdity of the lies was very well done.THE CHARACTERSMark Bellison (Ricky Gervais) is a mercilessly advantageous, cunning bastard who's also kind and compassionate. I like him. Anna McDoogles (Jennifer Garner) is a superficial girl who grows throughout the film by getting to see beyond appearances. She ends up giving Mark a chance and finding out that she does like him for him after all. I liked their relationship, too.I suggest watching if you like wit, satire, and thoughtful comedy. It could have been nonsense, but Ricky's way too smart for that -- he made it mean so much more than its premise. A testament to the effectiveness of simplicity.