Casual Cogitations

In its amiable, quiet, PG-13 way, The Invention of Lying is a remarkably radical comedy. It opens with a series of funny, relentlessly logical episodes in a world where everyone always tells the truth, and then slips in the implication that religion is possible only in a world that has the ability to lie. Then it wraps all of this into a sweet love story.

The screenplay is filled with hysterical one liners and acerbic barbs, but the greatest achievement might be its disquietingly full-throttle satire on religion. Gervais and Robinson have shrewdly implied that in a world without lies there is no religion, and they use a mix of broad and subtle comedy to build on this interesting idea. The scene in which Gervais writes down the equivalent of the 10 Commandments is played for guffaws because he's doing it on pizza boxes, but a sequence in which he has to explain said rules is filled with a probing style of humor that takes no prisoners.

The Invention of Lying also has dramatic ambitions, but its fulfillment of these is a little less consistent. There is a beautiful moment in which Gervais creates the idea of heaven and eternal paradise to quell his dying mother's terror, but some of the romantic stuff with Jennifer Garner is less successful. The two have a reasonable chemistry and their first date at the start is uproarious, but the love subplot never feels as inventive or satisfying as the rest of the project. It's a very formulaic addition to an otherwise refreshing comic gambit, and the finale looks lifted out of the dreariest rom-com possible. Still it's the only genuine narrative slip-up, and by that juncture the movie has already established itself as an entertaining use of your time.

I saw the movie with my brother, who laughed a lot. I have no idea what he thought of its implications. The Invention of Lying isn't strident, ideological or argumentative; it's simply the story of a guy trying to comfort his mother and perhaps win the woman he loves. Gervais, who co-directed and co-wrote with Matthew Robinson, walks a delicate tightrope above hazardous chasms.

He's helped greatly in his balancing act by Garner's inspired, seemingly effortless, performance as a great beauty who isn't conceited or cruel but simply thinks Mark, with his pug nose, is the wrong genetic match for her children. She plans to marry Brad, who is as conventionally handsome (and boring) as Clark Kent. The film has one of those scenes at the altar ("Do you, Brad, agree to stay with Anna as long as you can?") that avoids obvious cliches by involving profound philosophical conclusions.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

Yeah, the romance doesn't fully work and it is aesthetically a bit bland. Still I've already discussed these and made it clear they don't prevent The Invention of Lying from representing a fun way to spend 99 minutes.It's a solid comedy with a superlative central concept and ultimately I regret not having gone to see it and doing my bit to stop it from flopping.