The Invention of Lying is a highly enjoyable, witty, and smart comedy. Similar to Ricky Gervais’ previous film Ghost Town its nothing particularly special nor great, but it’s far more superior than most comedies being released today. It manages to be consistently funny and engaging.
Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais) lives in a world where no one is capable of telling a lie and everyone truly speaks their mind. He’s a screenwriter in one of the must dullest film companies in history, their intention is to tell every story from each century. Mark is stuck to writing about the 13th Century which many, including his boss, deem depressing and boring. He soon finds himself without a job and about to be evicted up until he discovers how to tell a lie. Once he learns to do so everything seems to go so right including a relationship with a beautiful woman named Anna (Jennifer Garner). He even earns the status of a celebrity after lying about how there’s a man in the sky who controls everything during an excellent satirical moment.
It is a high concept comedy that is more of a love story and it works. Mark’s actions and goals when he discovers the wonders of lying make perfect sense. He takes full advantage of it from lying to cops and even helping people out. All those moments are hilarious especially the earliest moments where Mark first starts to lie. As stated earlier, this is more of a romance. While the film comes close to divulging in cliches, all the sentimental moments feel earned. It may take a turn towards predictability at times, but it is hard to slant the film for that. All those questionable moments feel consistent with the story and the character arcs.
Gervais uses his usual shtick of comedy and it is funny. He makes Mark a purely likable and engaging character even when he’s acting on his more meaner spirited impulses. He conquers a feat that many comedic actors cannot, creating an involving character and not just simply a comedian. Garner also fares well and earns a good amount of laughs. She’s an obvious and typical love interest, but she makes it work. Her on screen beauty doesn’t just make her so watchable, but she has a natural onscreen charisma that many actresses do not. One of the pitfalls of the film does come from a few of the casting choices. Actors such as Tina Fey and Jonah Hill are hilarious every moment their on screen, but they’re wasted. Their roles feel more so like cameos which is ironic since the film is filled with some tremendous cameo appearances.
Another problem is faced with the film’s product placement. While with many films this is nothing more than a possible nitpick, its a genuine problem with The Invention of Lying. It is blatantly distracting and almost cringeworthy at times. These items could have been easily incorporated into the background instead their used and talked about in the story such as when Gervais uses Pizza Hut boxes during a 10 commandments like moment. It’s mind boggling how a film could go so far and to the extreme with product placement.
Despite these two major quibbles, The Invention of Lying is a memorable and entertaining comedy. The characters are easy to invest in and even care for which is something many comedies lack. It is a shame that more than a few actors are wasted and how the product placement becomes an actual problem with the film, but in the end this still stands as a highly likable film.