Overview
Set in a world where the concept of lying doesn't exist, a loser changes his lot when he invents lying and uses it to get ahead.
At first glance you might think that this is just a repacking of a couple of the movies that Jim Carrey has done in his career. You’d be wrong. The movie is set in some kind of parallel universe where everyone says exactly what they are thinking regardless of the ramifications. Lying is a foreign concept. At some point Gervais is able to tell a lie to make someone feel better. The movie is amusing at first and there is a slow build. There is about 10 minutes where it is as funny as any film that I’ve seen in a long time. I can’t give too much away. Gervais is following in the footsteps of Woody Allen here – he is taking a thinly-veiled shot at religious belief via satire. My only criticism of the movie is that Gervais didn’t quite know how to end the movie. I think he had a fantastic idea but didn’t quite know how to bring it home.
IHATEBadMovies.com reviews The Invention of Lying
Movie title: The Invention of Lying
Movie description: Set in a world where the concept of lying doesn't exist, a loser changes his lot when he invents lying and uses it to get ahead.
Date published: 2009-12-23
Director(s): Ricky Gervais, Matthew Robinson
Actor(s): Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K., Jeffrey Tambor, Fionnula Flanagan, Rob Lowe, Tina Fey, Stephanie March, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, John Hodgman, Nate Corddry, Jimmi Simpson, Martin Starr, Jason Bateman, Christopher Guest, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton, Bobby Moynihan, Stephen Merchant, Dreama Walker, Eric André, Cole Jensen, John Franchi
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
My Review
At first glance you might think that this is just a repacking of a couple of the movies that Jim Carrey has done in his career. You’d be wrong. The movie is set in some kind of parallel universe where everyone says exactly what they are thinking regardless of the ramifications. Lying is a foreign concept. At some point Gervais is able to tell a lie to make someone feel better. The movie is amusing at first and there is a slow build. There is about 10 minutes where it is as funny as any film that I’ve seen in a long time. I can’t give too much away. Gervais is following in the footsteps of Woody Allen here – he is taking a thinly-veiled shot at religious belief via satire. My only criticism of the movie is that Gervais didn’t quite know how to end the movie. I think he had a fantastic idea but didn’t quite know how to bring it home.
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My Review - 8/10
8/10