"The Invention of Lying" is both funny and flat

Imagine a world in which no one ever lies. Not only do they never lie, but they have no concept what a "lie" is. It reminds one of the eyeless Aunt Beast from "A Wrinkle in Time." If someone has never seen, how can he understand what seeing is? So it is with the denizens of "The Invention of Lying's" version of Earth: they have no word for truth because, for them, the truth truly is self-evident. There are no lies, no polite untruths, no deceptions, no fiction and, as an unintended consequence, little politeness, as complete honesty also means utter frankness. It is an altogether more depressing, if less confusing, place to live in.

It is a very depressing place indeed for Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais, who also wrote and directed the film), a scriptwriter at Lecture Films, a film company that only produces historical scripts read by professional readers because fiction is unheard of and it would not be truthful to have actors play the parts of the historical characters (not that the characters recognize this. They just never have thought otherwise). Mark is rather overweight and ugly, which ruins his date with Anna (Jennifer Garner), who likes him but would never want to procreate with him because his genes would not make for attractive kids. He is also stuck with the unenviable job of writing scripts for the 14th century at work. Since no one wants to see a lecture film about The Black Plague, he is soon fired, but not before his secretary and one of his coworkers give him a brutally honest appraisal of their feelings towards him.

Things are certainly looking down for Mark, until he goes to the bank and the teller asks him how much money he has in his bank account (he planned to withdraw the entire amount, as he was about to get evicted from his apartment). While he only has $300, he discovers that he can tell the teller that he has $800 dollars. Since she has known from birth that everything that anyone ever tells her is correct, she simply assumes that there is a computer error and gives him the money.

Mark is thunderstruck. He has an incredible new ability, one that he doesn't even have a word to describe. His friends don't even understand what he's trying to explain to them, which leads to an amusing scene in which he tells them increasingly outrageous lies about himself which they believe without question or even much surprise.

When he realizes that he can lie with complete impunity, he immediately sets out to benefit himself as much as possible. This takes up the majority of the movie, and it never gets boring, thanks to the cast's ability to play their honest innocence completely straight and Gervais' nearly flawless comedic timing. Indeed, after seeing him in this movie and last year's criminally unappreciated "Ghost Town," I'd say that he joins fellow "Office"-terrible-boss-actor Steve Carell on the very top of the heap of modern comedic actors. The majority of the film plays like a long, brilliant Monty Python sketch, with the actors and their surroundings (including buildings, advertisements and even epitaphs) never missing a beat in their odd little world. The film even touches on philosophical points like our basic need for self-deception and the little white lies that each of us tell every day, all the while recognizing that in the end, the comedy is what's most important.

Until, that is, about halfway through the film, when Mark's mother is on her deathbed.

You see, it turns out that there is no religion in the land of truth, and Mark's mum is terrified of "an eternity of nothingness." Mark is heartbroken, and to comfort his mother in her final moments, he tells her that death is not the end and that after she dies she will go to a happy place where she will be with all of the people she loved. Unfortunately for Mark, his mother's doctors hear his fib, and the world soon waits at his doorstep, eager to hear from him about his afterlife revelation. What follows is a long scene in which Gervais, a lifelong atheist, makes up a story about "the man in the sky" and in so doing takes shot after shot after shot at any and all religions, all but abandoning the cleverness and subtlety that made the film's outrageous moments shine all the more.

After the aforementioned scene, the film regains some of its comic footing, but every now and then Gervais feels the need to take another cheap shot at a God that he doesn't believe in. To call it a satire or an argument against religion is laughable, as even moderately intelligent people should realize that all Gervais is doing is setting up straw men that he can immediately knock down. At times, it almost seems like Gervais is angry at God for supposed injustices but hasn't taken the time to figure out who this God really is or why He does the things that he does.

Even here, the film can be funny, although to laugh at some of these jokes will make most religious people a bit uncomfortable, and even the non-religious should be able to see past Gervais' rather sophomoric and vindictive gibes. But perhaps the most disappointing thing is to see such a poorly thought-out "message" shoehorned into what is otherwise one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time (and one that is still worth viewing, if you are willing to sit through the heavy-handed moments).

Gervais is essentially preaching to the choir here. Anyone but the most staunch of atheists should be able to see that his "man in the sky" nonsense is not an accurate or even satirical look into the way Christians or anyone else thinks. In fact, the chillingly sad death scene of Mark's mother seems like a far better window into the mind of an atheist than any view of the religious that the film purports to offer. After all, if we are truly all that there is, what is there to hope for?