I was a big fan of Ghost Town, so eager to watch Ricky Gervais’s latest Hollywood effort. I really enjoyed The Invention of Lying, I must say.
The film’s a modern fable/fantasy and a lovely gentle comedy. There are no murders, explosions or dastardly villans (although Rob Lowe comes close). Believe me, the film doesn’t need ’em.
The plot is set in a world where no one knows how to lie. It’s a brutal world in which ugly people are told they are ugly every five seconds. Gervais is on the receiving end of it (as the chubby man with a snub nose), can’t get anywhere with the girl who keeps telling him she’s ‘out of his league’, and loses his job. He’s then about to be evicted from his flat, when in desperation he manages to lie.
In learning to lie, Gervais becomes almost godlike – indeed, he founds the world’s first religion and in one hilarious scene (after a hard night’s drinking) ends up looking like Jesus. For a while, he manages to make the world a better place (we see white lies really helping a lot of people), but then it all goes wrong of course – the world becomes even worse than it was before.
I’m gonna leave the review there really, cos I don’t want to spoil it. All in all, it’s an amusing and thought-provoking film. When it came out at the cinema, it got some mixed reviews, but I can’t think of anything negative to say about the story. It’s best of quirky British comedy. And Gervais teaches Hollywood a thing or two about acting, with a great scene at his mother’s bedside. An absolute must-see in my opinion. 9/10
