Little white lies go a long way in movie
‘The Invention of Lying’ starring Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner
and Rob Lowe
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The Invention of Lying
”
creates the most outlandish, otherworldly, fantastical world
ever created on screen
– a world in which humans cannot tell a lie. Now anyone who has
spent time around small children can tell you that kids learn to
lie from an early age. Most of these lies are ones to keep away
from the consequences of bad behavior, such as hitting a sibling or
stealing a toy from a classmate. And
plenty of these lies come when an adult has been witness to the
grievance. It seems as though lying starts out as an instinct, not
something that is learned, so it’s hard to imagine a world without
it.
Little white lies go a long way in movie
‘The Invention of Lying’ starring Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner and Rob Lowe
“The Invention of Lying” creates the most outlandish, otherworldly, fantastical world ever created on screen – a world in which humans cannot tell a lie. Now anyone who has spent time around small children can tell you that kids learn to lie from an early age. Most of these lies are ones to keep away from the consequences of bad behavior, such as hitting a sibling or stealing a toy from a classmate. And plenty of these lies come when an adult has been witness to the grievance. It seems as though lying starts out as an instinct, not something that is learned, so it’s hard to imagine a world without it.
Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson, who wrote and directed the movie, however, created just such a world. Now if you imagine it would be a gentler, kinder place to live, you’d be mistaken.
Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais) lives in just such a world and he’s got it rough. He is a pudgy, snub-nosed screenwriter who isn’t very good at his job and isn’t very lucky in love. His boss tells him he is probably going to fire him, but that he has to work up the nerve. When he goes on a date with Anna (Jennifer Garner) she doesn’t miss a beat in telling Mark that she finds him unattractive and that he isn’t financially stable enough for her to date. She says she doesn’t want to have fat, snub-nosed children. Mark can’t even lie to himself, and knows how much of a loser he is.
Mark soon gets the ax from his screenwriter job – all movies in this alternative universe are basically transcripts of historical events that Nathan Goldfrappe (Christopher Guest) reads out loud on camera. Mark was stuck with the 13th century, and people find the plague too depressing. After losing his job, his landlord tells him he is going to evict him, and being unable to tell a lie, Mark admits he only has $300 in his savings account, short of his monthly rent.
But Mark’s life changes forever when he goes to the bank to withdraw the money he has left. The bank’s system is down and when the teller asks Mark how much money he would like to withdraw, he says $800. The teller hands the money over to him, and even when the system comes back online, she assumes the computer has made a mistake about the amount of money in Mark’s account. The first lie is born.
Mark soon discovers that he can fudge the truth about plenty of things and everyone believes him because no one has any inkling that someone could tell something untrue. He uses his newfound talent to get his job back, when he creates a tall tale about finding a manuscript in the desert that just happens to tell of an alien invasion in the 13th century. He persuades Anna to go on another date with him, and she finds she likes his company.
Mark also discovers what we would probably call the little white lie. He sees that he has the power to help other people by fudging the truth a little. When his neighbor Frank (Jonah Hill) talks about killing himself because his life is so miserable, Mark tells him things will get better. Those few words snap Frank out of his stupor. And when Mark’s mother Martha (Fionnula Flanagan) is on her deathbed, he creates a whimsical afterlife where she will meet up with her late husband and live in a mansion.
Soon, however, Mark’s lies have gotten him in over his head. He has to keep telling more lies to cover the lies he’s already told. And he has to decide if he should lie to get the one thing he really wants – Anna, who is still stuck on the fat, snub-nosed children she would have if she married Mark.
The one thing that is frustrating with the movie is that not only can the people in this strange world not lie, they also seem unable to filter the thoughts in their head. It’s like none of their mothers’ ever told them, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” All the ill thoughts just tumble out of their mouths without pause. Also, everyone seems quite naïve in this world. No one ever questions the outlandish things that Mark has to say.
Some of the funniest moments, too, do little to move the plot forward. These include the commercials for things such as Coke, which basically are a long lecture on why Coke is bad for people but the company hopes people will drink it anyway.
The movie still has plenty of moments that are funny, and it does a decent job of pointing out how lying can be helpful or harmful.
