Movie Review: The Invention of Lying

Here’s my review of The Invention of Lying. The Invention of Lying is a movie you can watch on Netflix starring Ricky Gervais. I think it came out in 2009 or so. It’s a high concept movie and the basic premise is “What if humans weren’t capable of lying and just one guy had the power to?” That guy is Ricky Gervais.

There’s a surprising amount of talent in this movie. Jennifer Garner, Louis CK, Jeffrey Tambor, Rob Lowe, Tina Fey, John Hodgman, Jonah Hill, Jason Bateman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton, Eric Andre. I’m not sure how or why, but everyone showed up to be in this movie.

Gervais plays a 40 year old broke loser who’s about to lose his job and his apartment. He works at a movie studio in this completely honest world called Lecture Films, because obviously fiction is out of the question, so people just read history for entertainment. He gets fired and, just as he’s about to lose his apartment and become homeless, he instinctively lies giving him what essentially amounts to a super power in this universe.

The premise is entertaining enough and there’s some humor to be found in the brutal candor people use in their interactions with one another. Somewhat bizarrely, the idea of complete honesty is conflated with lack of empathy, robotic mannerisms and stupidity, which I found somewhat strange. There’s a scene where a man robs a house and the homeowner tricks him by asking his name and, compelled by this inability to deceive, the man offers it. But even in a world of brutal honesty, couldn’t the man say “I don’t want to tell you my name.” Or, if that doesn’t work in the movie’s rules, why would he rob a house knowing that deception is impossible and the risk of being caught is that much higher?

I might be overthinking the premise, but the premise is kind of the point of the movie. Gervais’s love interest in the movie is a shallow sociopath which, I suppose, we’re led to believe is normal because Rob Lowe’s character is also a shallow sociopath. There’s a scene where Gervais asks her what she sees when she looks at people and she says things like “Fat loser eating a sandwich.””Two lame nerds.” Like… that’s not just your girlfriend being honest, Ricky. Your girlfriend is terrible. Then Gervais immediately tells her that he thinks she’s kind and sweet and oh so perfect. Gross.

Speaking of this love story, it’s essentially the story of a friend-zoned dude not giving up hope and orbiting this (shallow, horrible) woman with the hopes of getting with her in the end. So when he does get with her in the end, it doesn’t feel like a triumphant moment, it’s like, oh, you poor sap. Even after he uses his lying superpowers to get super rich and famous, she still rejects him like dude, give up. This woman sucks. You can do better. Your boss’s receptionist is hotter, what are you doing.

Ugh, I just want to go on a little rant about this. Jennifer Garner is not that attractive (sorry Jennifer Garner), and her character is a shallow, mean-spirited idiot, but the movie just sort of willfully disbelieves that’s the case and acts as though she’s mindblowingly attractive and not awful. That’s the main thing that sticks in my craw when writing this review of The Invention of Lying.

Louis CK is oddly memorable as a zonked out drunk.

I think it might have actually been more interesting if the movie started with Gervais lamenting being lonely because he’s rejected by his peers and society and had the act 2 reversal as him realizing he’s now even more lonely despite acceptance as he’s realized his peers and society are unbearable morons, and then the act 3 uplift maybe being meeting a woman who doesn’t isn’t an unbearable moron.

Anyway, it was a decent movie overall I guess. I’m just happy it was an original movie and not a sequel or remake. I thought the acting was good. I thought the actual writing was pretty well done. I just thought Jennifer Garner’s character was terrible and not believable as a prize and Gervais’s character should have totally kicked her to the curb. Between this and After Life I’m beginning to think Gervais himself is very depressed. After Life feels like a sort of spiritual successor to this movie.

Don’t get me wrong, I like After Life (and this movie as well, I don’t usually review things I don’t like). Just like, agh man, this woman sucks, drop her like a bad habit don’t let her move in with you and then date other dudes. What are you doing. This movie is kind of like the Secret Life of Walter Mitty in terms of tone and it’s about equal to that movie in terms of quality, all things considered. It’s better in some ways, like the cast and the jokes, and worse in others, like the plot and the point of the whole thing.

That about does it for my review of The Invention of Lying. Be sure to check out the Movies Section for more content like this.