The Invention Of Lying

Confession time again.

I think this might be the first thing other than a TV commercial that I've ever watched that has Ricky Gervais in a starring role.

I never saw the English The Office, I haven't watched An Idiot Abroad, and I haven't watched Extras.

But hey, at least I'm catching up, right?

So here's the summary of my first exposure to Ricky Gervais: The Invention Of Lying.

The idea behind the movie is remarkably simple, and the poster pretty much sums it up perfectly.  Picture a world just like ours, except nobody can do anything that isn't true.  In fact, they don't have the word "true" or "false" in their language, because, well, if one doesn't exist why do you need a word to describe the other?  Or, as the main character describes it, "of course there isn't already a word for it, I just invented it."

The world appears to be similar to ours, except that it's even colder, if you can imagine it.  People always say exactly what's on their mind, with no concern for the repercussions.  Casino employees calmly explain why you won't win when you play even as they cash in your money for chips.  People on dates will flatly point out the flaws with each other and use them to immediately summarize why the relationship will or won't work.  Television shows are all documentaries, and instead of actors (you know, people who "lie" on stage about who they are), every story is just a man sitting in a chair reading a description of historical events or explaining how things work.  Advertising, of course, is simply telling people what the product is.

Enter our main character, Mark Bellison (Gervais), who manages, in a moment of panic, to utter the first lie anybody has ever told anybody.  Ever.  It seems like something small at first, but keep in mind that since nobody else has an idea that it's possible not to say what's true, anything he says is immediately believed.  Even if the evidence in front of them directly contradicts this statement, their minds aren't able to comprehend that what's said isn't what's there.

In fact, there's a very funny moment where he tries to tell lies that are more and more ridiculous to his friends to see if they can understand what he's doing ("I invented the bicycle."  "Love your work.") but they aren't able to.  A woman on the street he says "The world will come to an end if we don't have sex" is immediately determined that she has to save the world, even when Bellison starts to have second thoughts.

The character grows as the story continues as he realizes that not only could he lie to gain power over other people, but he can also lie to bring comfort to others, such as when he convinces someone who lives in his building (Jonah Hill) not to kill himself despite how bleak his life appears currently.

The movie starts pretty bleak and grim as you realize just how little joy there can be in life, especially if you aren't blessed with beauty, wealth, or a great job.  Everything is based purely off of shallow, surface features instead of trying to investigate further.  Relationships seem completely based on physical attributes, and when Bellison attempts to explain to someone that an initial impression isn't all there is to someone, it seems to rewrite the very idea of how relationships work.

There's a romance thread through the movie, with the always wonderful Jennifer Garner playing the part of the woman that Gervais desperately wants to prove his worth to, despite the fact that the way the world works doesn't seem willing to let her get past the fact that "any kids we have will be fat with snub noses."

There's also an ongoing story line through the movie that I thought was remarkably clever.  When his mother is passing on, Bellison, wishing to give his mother comfort as she explains her fear of dying and simply "being gone," makes up Heaven and explains it to her.  Word spreads, and soon Bellison is being hounded by the entire world as this "place that has just now been revealed and must exist because someone said it does" grabs attention.  It seems to address the idea that religion can only really exist in a world where people are willing to accept things on faith, and faith is based on the idea of believing something that might not be true.

The story thread does sputter a bit towards the end when it tries to swing back around to the romance plot, but every moment that they do spend with Bellison trying to explain "the guy in the sky" and what people can and cannot do (and how, even if what someone tells you is the truth, you can still take a different meaning than what someone else takes away from it) is sharp and clever, managing to poke fun at organized religion even while showing just how comforting it can be to have it exist.

While I didn't quite enjoy the whole movie (as I said, the beginning is pretty grim and feels more like someone trying to make a comedy based entirely around humor that Seth Rogan would do back at the start of his comedy career), it quickly swings up and had me laughing and enjoying it throughout the rest of the evening.  The cast is brilliant in their roles, and I walked away trying to figure out more of how this world could work.  I'm curious how technology advanced, especially since you have to very carefully word a hypothesis to include "I'm doing this test to see if" and not just "I think this will happen."  How did math advance without imaginary numbers?  Do people just not think about the square root of -1?

If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.  Get through the rough patch as the movie tries to get its feet under it, and you won't regret it.