THE INVENTION OF LYING
 
US, 2009, 99 minutes, Colour.
Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C. K., Jeffrey Tambor, Fionnula Flanagan, Rob Lowe, Tina Fey, Edward Norton, Jason Bateman, Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Directed by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson.
 
A light comedy, played for smiles rather than laughs, that takes on quite a few potentially profound themes.

Co-writer/director, Ricky Gervais introduces the film during the credits and tells us that this is the story of a chubby little man (played by himself). The main thing about the world in which he lives is that everybody tells the truth – especially blurting out their inner thoughts and feelings, often unprovoked. They accept this disconcerting aspect of life as normal. Some of the scenes where characters come out with their unkind, dismissive and judgmental 'truths' is often ironically amusing.

However, one of the unanticipated aspects of the screenplay is that, because people speak the truth, those who hear it accept whatever they hear as true. Since a lot of the judgmental stuff is ridicule and writing off others as losers, this has
a deeply detrimental effect on self-image of those who are mocked and dismissed.

Down on his luck screen writer (for Lecture Films where a professor reads history texts from the screen (and is played by Christopher Guest), Mark Bellison (Gervais) is in love with Anna (Jennifer Garner) who wants a gene-correct husband and says so. But Mark is considered a loser by all, including those at the office (Rob Lowe, Tina Fey). However,one day he gets a brainwave while withdrawing his meagre savings from the bank and tells a lie, bumping up his cash total – which, in this world, is accepted as the truth. His life changes when he lies, sometimes for the benefit of others, especially when he comforts his dying mother (Fionnula Flanagan) who is afraid of an eternity of nothingness. Word gets out about how moving what he said to her really is and (a bit like The Life of Brian), he finds himself with a media frenzy and disciples who listen to his every word about 'the man upstairs' and messages about morality, eternity and the meaning of life. As if it had never been said before – we are obviously in a post-Christian era.

Ricky Gervais has a philosophy degree and philosophy underlies a great deal of the screenplay, raising issues about life and death, life after death, human freedom, the nature of God, God as beneficent and malevolent as well as the nature of the churches and whether all that they teach is truth or myth. It is not always subtle but, for those who are not upset because the film is not full of belly laughs, there is some light provocative thinking about important issues going on.

And, if you haven't heard, there are some amusing guest actors as a barman, a traffic cop and a doctor.

1.            The work of Ricky Gervais, his style of comedy, British, deadpan, transferred to the United States?  Irony, satire?  Human nature?  Religion? 

2.            The voice-over, the comment on the credits, the songs throughout the film, Gervais and his self-image, Mark at the bottom of the pile, but the importance of telling the truth and not lying?

3.            The town, ordinary, the collage of people speaking the blunt truth, offensive but people accepting this?  Mark, Anna, the date, her sexual behaviour, the effect for the audience?  Her comments that he wasn’t attractive?  The fact that he was being threatened, fired?  The wry comments of the waiter, the comment about Mark being way out of Anna’s league?  The issue of not telling a lie – but the necessity of bluntly telling the truth or not? 

4.            The date, talk, attraction or not, Anna’s routines, jobs, hobbies?

5.            Mark, at home, watching the television, the Coke and Pepsi ads and their humour?

6.            Frank, in the lift, his discussions about suicide?  Mark and the people in the street?

7.            Mark, his job, the film program, the documentaries about history?  The tour guide of the studio?  The scenes from Napoleon, 1812-13?  The topics of the other films?  Tina Fey’s humour as the secretary?  Taking his messages – despite his being fired? 

8.            Anthony as the boss, timid, walking past Mark’s room, firing him?  The issue of the 13th century and the film about the Plague?  Shelly saying that she loathed working with him?  Brad and his hatred for Mark, goodbye? 

9.            The sad place for abandoning elderly people, Mark’s mother, the blank TV?  Her loss of memory?  Yet her affirmation of her son?  Mark and his being evicted, going to the bank, the machines down, the moment for the lie, the visuals of his brain, asking for the money?  His exhilaration? 

10.         Telling his friend in the bar, everybody believing everything that he said?  His jobs?  The barman agreeing? 

11.         The woman and sex, the end of the world?  Greg and his driving, the police, the issue of the bribe, saying that he was not drunk?  Their going to the casino, getting the chips, gambling, cheating at roulette?  Their success?

12.         Frank, looking up suicide on the internet, issues of suffocation?  Mark lying to him for his own benefit, promising to hang out?  Taking the vagrant to the bank, the couple who had quarrelled at the café reconciling?  The old people? 

13.         His spiel about the 13th century, the aliens from space, the nude Amazon wedding?  Everybody being impressed at the studio?  Their applause?

14.         His mother, her fear of death, his offer of consolation, talk about Heaven?  The doctor and his reaction?  The media and the crowds?  Anna believing him?  His writing the text?  People keeping vigil?  His proclamation of his new principles – from the man in the sky?  Written on Pizza Hut boxes?  The proclamation, God and Heaven?

15.         People, religious attitudes, their absence, credulity?  Gullibility, desire for religion?  Good stuff, bad stuff?  The people turning against God because of his cruelty?  Yet the explanations of God and the good stuff?  Their decisions about Heaven?

16.         The Black Plague film, awards?  Anna and her response?  The Bear and the Jammed Tale? (**??) Looking below the surface?

17.         Anna and her concern about her progeny, chubby snub-nosed children?  Yet her nice comments about Mark?  Finding him interesting?

18.         The interview, the affluent life, the scripts?

19.         Anna and Brad, the issue of genetics, ordering the meal, Brad and his prestige, his blunt comment about her losing her looks?  The plan for marrying?

20.         The people arguing, Mark saying people could do three bad things before going to the bad place?  People and human nature?  The kicker, yet Frank and his wanting eternal happiness rather than the drab life here?  

21.         Anna, discovering love?  The critical comments of her mother? 

22.         Mark going to his mother’s grave, his beard and hair, the appearance of Jesus?  Greg’s visit, getting him to shave?  Going to the wedding?  The issue of genetic fat children?  The ice cream?  Anna and her meeting the little boy in the park and his being bullied, her affirming him? 

23.         Mark at the wedding, his interruption?  Anna wanting to know what the man in the sky would want?  Mark and his trying to make her make her own decision?  His confession?

24.         The end, the family, the boy and his ability to lie – especially about Anna’s cooking and how bad it was?

25.         The film considered as being anti-religion?  Ricky Gervais’s own views?  How fair was the presentation of religion, pro and con?