Directed by Ricky Gervais & Matthew Robinson
Starring Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Louis CK, Rob Lowe, Jonah Hill, Tina Fey, Fionnula Flanagan

The Invention Of Lying has a very fresh and clever premise: it takes place in a world where mankind has never learned how to tell a lie and Gervais' character, Mark invents it and he can do pretty much whatever he pleases from that point on. The end result is that the script is clever (call me a pessimist, but I really think that most of us really think horrible shit about others inside our heads like the people in this film who just say them out loud [observe the trailer below]), but mostly not too funny which was after all what they were aiming for.

 The film has quality cameos from such professionals as Edward Norton and Philip Seymour Hoffman and there is fun to be had. For instance, the film takes a brave stab at religion when someone close to Mark is dying and to ease their despair he tells a lie about a good place where we all go after death and as a result people everywhere start to think of him as a messiah. What that implies of course is that religion is a lie. Once again, clever, but here again they forgot that they were making a comedy and there's not much humor drawn from the delicious set-up.

 Then there's the love affair between Mark and Garner's Anna. He has a huge crush on her and even though she likes him back or possibly even more, Anna can't get over the fact that their offspring would most likely look chubby with a snub nose considering his physique (because she is always brutally honest as is everyone else except Mark) and right there we have the set-up for the romance in the movie, which doesn't really work because Anna remains a shallow, grade-A bitch through the movie and where Mark could've fallen for a woman who loves him for who he is, he chooses to chase her. Of course in real life, if you have strict standards like she does, go with them if that's what you need to get your rocks off, but it really doesn't work as a romantic storyline in a movie, now does it?!

KITEYTETTYNÄ SINIVALKOISILLE
Elokuvassa on näppärä lähtökohta, joka on että eletään maailmassa, jossa ihmiskunta ei ole koskaan oppinut valehtelemaan ja Gervaisin hahmo, Mark, saa päivänä eräänä tämän oivalluksen, jonka jälkeen kaikki on hänelle mahdollista ja saatavilla. Ihmisten pohjimmainen itsekkyys ja pinnallisuus saa avoimen käsittelyn, kuten uskontokin omansa, mutta vaikka lopputulos on mietitty kivasti läpi, ei se valitettavasti ole kovin hauska. Eli nokkela komedia, joka ei vaan tarjoa monia nauruja.

IMDb