Invention of Lying
By Matthew Rodgers
To call this second outing as leading man for Wernham Hogg’s favourite exile as hilarious as the premise might suggest would be something of a lie itself. Similar in tone to the charming Ghost Town, it does bear more of the hallmarks of Gervais’s successful brand of comedy; unfinished sentences, reliance on self deprecation, undoubted intelligence, and depending on your tolerance of his now patented shtick, extreme smugness.
A somewhat biblical parable set in a distorted version of our own world; same clothes, same cars, same daily slog through the travails of life, the one notable difference being that the concept of lying doesn’t exist. That is until our “chubby” and “snub-nosed” loser Mark Bellison (Gervais), on the verge of eviction having just suffered the most honest dismissal at work and reeling from a date with his unrequited love (Garner), has an epiphany that means he no longer has to tell the truth. Cue trips to the casino, banks, hotel rooms with women believing sex with Mark will prevent Armageddon, oh, and the creation of a little lie called Religion. Heavy stuff eh?
The concept is high but extremely funny, Gervais and Robinson cleverly squeeze all they can from the undeniably “one-trick” premise. The opening twenty minutes are stuffed with countless quips, mostly put-downs towards Bellison (who has more than a whiff of Extras Andy Millman about him). It’s what is made of the sudden and essential shift in tone at the half way mark that will leave the biggest impression.
So, before it gets repetitive Invention of Lying becomes theological, a brave move by anyone, let alone the openly atheist Gervais. After a surprisingly affecting bedside exchange with his dying mother, Bellison thinks up “the man in the sky” to ease her passing, with this comes an allegory of faith that is critical and commendable of religion in equal measure.
With a rolodex of admirers to call up, the success rate of the multitude of stars is patchy. Edward Norton is hilarious as the angry traffic cop, and Jason Batemen makes the most of his single scene. Tina Fey doesn’t fare so well, the promise of high billing isn’t realised with a couple of brief and predictable set-pieces. It must be hard to juggle Christopher Guest, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, AND Jeffrey Tambor, sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. Garner also struggles with a role that allows for very little character development, she is more a cathartic tool for Mark’s character progression.
Formerly titled The Other Side of Truth, the truth of the matter here is that The Invention of Lying is a mixed bag of jokes and starry/pointless cameos that’s still better than most movies that fib us into believing they’re comedies.
