Stephen Furda aka wetwillies

The Invention of Lying

Everywhere I looked I saw a lot of hate for the Invention of Lying and the whole time I was wondering why. It looked like a pretty good film. It had a lot of things going for it, like an interesting concept (something a lot of comedies lack) and a wonderful cast. Still, I was skeptical.

And then I wasn't. If anything, Gervais opened the film strong. The movie's concept hits you like a brick and right from the get-go you're either laughing or raising your eyebrow thinking, "What am I watching?" I was the first one. Honestly, I found it pretty hilarious. I love Ricky Gervais (who doesn't?) and all of the cameos were a delight.

Really, the cameos were quite excellent. Among the many are Philip Seymour Hoffman as a bartender and Jonah Hill in a very serious role. His character is suicidal and leads to one of the film's heartfelt moments. Edward Norton shows up as a cop who gets aroused by the thrill of arresting someone and Tina Fey is Gervais' cruel secretary. The cameos alone provide a lot of laughs.

The Invention of Lying's big problem is it doesn't know what it wants to be. It flip-flops a lot. At one point, it seems to be a dirty comedy and just minutes later you're almost in tears. Around the middle of the film it turns into a satire of religion, which leads to a hilarious scene. With 30 minutes left, it becomes some sort of romantic comedy. But I was still entertained the whole way through.

Managing to be both very depressing and uplifting at the same time, The Invention of Lying was a fun distraction that showed Gervais could do film pretty well too. While it's not on the level of The Office or one of 2009's funniest comedies, The Hangover, I thought it was well worth a watch.

Final Score: 8/10