On Loan: The Invention of Lying Is, Truthfully, A Mess

My friend Jeremy rented The Invention of Lying and, over at his place one easygoing Friday evening, we decided to watch this film while he had it at home, thanks to his personal Netlfix queue. I really enjoy Ricky Gervais and his particular brand of comedy most of the time, especially when he appears on awards shows or as David Brent in the original, British version of The Office, and I noticed that this film boasted a whole mess of random celebrities and comedians that made it instantly appealing. in addition, the premise was fresh, original, and intriguing, so it was a worthwhile choice, it seemed - at least, at first.

In the film, Gervais plays Mark Bellison, a man who lives in an alternate reality, where lying, fiction, and imagination do not exist. People tell the truth all the time, and most times, it's unsolicited, resulting in unabashed rudeness and/or bluntness. As a result, the movie industry is populated with non-fiction lecture films, and there is no religion. Mark is an unsuccessful lecture-film writer who is cursed with having to write for the 13th century and, thus, mostly about the Black Plague. He is also set up to date Anna McDoogles (Jennifer Garner), who is beautiful and successful and tells Mark plain off that she is not attracted to him due to his looks and tenuous financial situation but is only willing to go out with him to satisfy her mother. She admits after their first date, however, that she had a better time than she thought. The next day, Mark is fired from his job by his boss (Jeffrey Tambor) and is evicted form his apartment by his landlord. Dejected, Mark visits his bank with the purpose of closing his bank account and getting whatever money is left to pay his rent, but when the teller informs him that the computers are down and asks him how much is left in his account, Mark has an epiphany and thinks of a new concept. He tells the world's first lie by exaggerating the amount in his account to be equitable to that which he owes for his rent. Since the world knows only truth and full disclosure, the teller gives him the quoted amount. From then on, Mark uses his newfound invention for himself, for his friends, for his dying mother (Fionnula Flanagan), for Anna, and for the world, though, as time progresses, with evermore disastrous consequences.

The Invention of Lying could and should have been a good, funny film. Gervais, an offbeat, unpredictable comedian who also served as co-director, co-writer, and co-producer, invented (rimshot) a truly creative conceit that was rife with comedic possibility. The problem is, he and his co-screenwriter did not seem to know how to sustain this premise or flush out the full potential of the joke underlying their idea for the full ninety minutes of this film. The story structure, therefore, was a mess, meandering in haphazard fashion from a self-effacing loser-type discovering something akin to a new super power, to an odd couple farce of a romantic comedy, to a dull religious satire, without cauterizing these three concepts into one cohesive whole. As a result, the film started off sort of chuckle-worthy but gradually became rather yawn-inducing as it descended into the latter third of the film, lacking the pointedness and edge of a true satire and failing to provide its main character with any genuine motivation other than pressing his luck and, ultimately, learning his lesson about the dangers, possibility, and morality (or lack of) of lying, a lesson only he can learn because only he has the ability to lie. Whether his character's journey is meant to be didactic in any way is unclear. What is clear is that the spiraling story structure undermines any chance for this clever premise to be effective.

What's worse, even the original conceit of lying in an all truth-telling world was not executed in a consistently humorous manner. The likely hoped-for chemistry between Gervais and Garner was completely absent; Anna's repeated announcements of how she is not attracted to and too good for Mark provided Gervais with some opportunity to perform his best, self-deprecating act, donning the persona of the put-upon schmuck who just can't win, an element that accompanies many of his characters, but after a time, they became tedious and annoying and much like beating a dead horse. Garner, also, did not really have much comedic timing or was not directed appropriately, such that even her best or rudest honesty rarely tickled the funny bone. She felt completely miscast opposite Gervais, a much more skillful comedian, and her timing and/or delivery never improved, even as the comedy veered toward drama when Mark realizes the error of his ways and the consequences of his rampant fibbing.

In fact, other than the basic plot concept, the only positive aspect to the film is that there is a bevy of comedians that comprise the supporting cast and random cameos of various stars and celebrities, such that watching the film became an exercise in "spot the cameo." Other than Tambor, who played Mark's boss, and Flanagan, who played Mark's mother, there was also Tina Fey, who played Mark's secretary; Rob Lowe, who played Mark's work rival (who also zeros in Anna's affections in much the same manner that his character in Wayne's World zeroed in on Tia Carrere's Cassandra); Jonah Hill as Mark's neighbor; and cameos by the likes of Jason Bateman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Edward Norton. Some appearances were more hilarious than others, but the sheer star power attached to this film proved to be a welcome distraction to the otherwise uninteresting and scattered direction of a story that never found its center, simply because Gervais and the rest of his creative team could not seem to decide what they wanted the film to be.

That's not to say that The Invention of Lying did not have its moments. Some of the cast executed the brute honesty motif better than others. Tina Fey's disgruntled administrative assistant proved to be a great foil for Gervais, so much so that it was a rotten shame that she did not appear in more of the movie. Mark's only friends were a local bartender (Hoffman) and a bar regular (Louis CK), and their conversations, trying to envision the world now available to Mark in lieu of his new invention, proved to be a pointedly chuckle-inducing observation of the average male in our society. Even Mark's "Sermon on the Mount" of sorts, wherein he pronounces some off-the-cuff commandments he concocted off the back of a pizza box, could have been funnier if the scene itself had not dragged on for so long and descended into sheer silliness, as Mark lets his new followers, hanging on to his every word, ask every question that pops into their heads, when not even he has the answers, despite his best fabrications, nor a way to dig himself out of the deep holes he dug.

All in all, The Invention of a Lying arose from a nice idea, had some good moments, and also contained a cast that was probably too good for the movie itself, in no small part due to the manner in which the film was executed. It was also an unfocused mess. As such, I have no qualms in rating this movie a 5.5 on the trademarked ratings scale, between utterly mediocre and cute but mediocre. I would have probably given it a 6 if I'd laughed more, but I didn't find the film or its ready, aim, fire, and miss style of comedy ultimately effective. Thus, it doesn't pass the test. Ricky Gervais had another neat idea to add to his growing repertoire of neat ideas, but not everyone can win them all, and for every David Brent on the Office, there is bound to be a Mark Bellison in The Invention of Lying.