Consistently amusing rather than laugh-out-loud funny, Ricky Gervais’s ingenious directorial debut is the most daringly philosophical comedy to emerge this side of Charlie Kaufman’s brain. A high-concept knockabout, The Invention of Lying is precisely what it suggests. In a screwy parallel universe where no one has even thought to be economical with the truth, a muddle in the bank inspires Mr. Gervais to hit upon the film’s central conceit. What if one wasn’t entirely honest all the time?
In a world where a retirement home advertises itself as “a sad place for old hopeless people”; where blind dates are greeted with a friendly, off-putting ‘Hi, I was just masturbating’; where waiters tell you that they’ve sipped your drink, deceit becomes a profitable business.
In no time, Mr. Gervais’ central schmuck – previously known as ‘fat loser’ by all – has improbably leapfrogged over smarmy rival screenwriter Rob Lowe at work and may even have a shot with Anna (Jennifer Garner, note perfect), the girl of his dreams. He soon hits upon the biggest lie of all. There is a man in the sky, he tells the eager masses who have gathered around him, who decides when we die and whether we get into the afterlife, a place of unlimited ice cream and mansions.
Despite the gravity of this ‘revelation’, Anna holds out on our hero. In this painfully frank reality, the prospect of having ‘fat children with snub noses’ is still too much for her to bear. Thus the final act falls into familiar will-she, won’t-she romantic comedy beats, which, though ably delivered, are neither as funny as what has gone before, nor as pleasing as the rhythms of last year’s criminally underrated Ghost Town.
No matter; this smart sci-fi curio is inventive enough to have attracted half of Hollywood. Regular Gervais players Stephen Merchant and Barry off Eastenders are joined by such brilliant comic talents as Tiny Fey, Kristen Wiig, Jeffrey Tambor and Jason Bateman; Philip Seymour Hoffman pops up as a gullible bartender, Ed Norton is a cop who tells potential detainees about his bribe rates, cocaine habit and the sexual thrills he gets out of beating people up.
Bravo, all.