As with all Ricky Gervais comedies, The Invention of Lying has much more depth and heart than it would appear. It’s sad that his forays into American cinema have gone mostly unnoticed by the public, as Ghost Town and the Invention of Lying are two very funny and original comedies. This is a rare movie that carries a range of different emotional content, and defines the term “a breath of fresh air”. While watching I literally thought “NOW I remember what it is to see a GOOD movie“.
Overall the movie is incredibly well written and directed, and takes an interesting look at modern social culture and the importance of lying and half truths. It covers all forms of lying from the little white lies we tell our selves to the big lies we tell each other to keep society civilized. In the movie rather than just being unabashedly truthful, it’s as if the people have no inner monologue and spout out whatever they’re thinking at the time, leading to a many laugh out loud moments. Probably the funniest moments in the movie include the accidental creation of Religion and the Coke advertisements, but I can’t say much more than that without spoiling the movie.
Lying has an unbelievable cast of cameos including Louis CK, Jason Bateman, Ed Norton, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Tina Fey, Rob Lowe, Jennifer Garner just to name a few, but the movie is carried by Gervais himself. Perpetually the everyman, his average looks and dry delivery brings cinema back to the days when the performance mattered, and roles weren’t cast based on how pretty the actor was. He manages to convey a message through his comedy without managing to be preachy or irritating, and is incredibly successful at making outrageous situations believable. I can only hope that the poor box office performance of his films don’t deprive us of more films from Gervais.
I would highly recommend you go pick this movie up; it’s very funny and has a lot of heart. This is pretty much a universally enjoyable comedy that you can watch alone or with a date, and I can’t fathom someone disliking it. There is literally something for every one Comedy, Drama, Romance and Comedy again. The Invention of Lying is now available on DVD and Blu Ray, as well as Ghost Town so go get ‘em
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Have you ever been watching Mystery Science theater or Rifftrax, and thought one of the Following: “I miss Joel“, “The Original Voice of Crow was better“,” It all went to hell after Dr Forester and Frank left.” Well wish no more folks, because the new Cinematic titanic is upon us.
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