I just got back from watching this one at a little second run movie theater in the next town over. It started off as a fairly funny little film. The premise was that no one had ever told a lie before, and then one day, one guy discovered how to lie. There are some decent laughs, and it was pretty good until about half way through the movie. At that point the main character's mother is dying, and he invents a story about a good afterlife to make her happy. Some nurses overheard him, and then he came up with a story about a man in the sky who controlled everything. So yeah, you guessed it, this movie was nothing more than some Hollywood mopes criticizing religion (primarily Judeo-Christian religion) in a way that they thought was edgy. The rest of the movie is primarily just the writers mocking religion.

The story about a guy discovering how to lie had a lot of potential, and there were some legitimately funny moments. I just wish the writers would have taken it down a more respectful path.

It took a couple of attempts to go and see "The Invention of Lying" at the cinema due to various reasons I won't disclose, but eventually we did go and see this film. I think Ricky Gervais is one of those comedians whose humour doesn't always work and isn't understood by everyone. In the case of this film it is still fairly typical of his style of comedy though I think he has changed somewhat to be more accommodating to an American audience (don't take this the wrong way, but American humour tends to be more obvious than subtle). I did however find his blend of comedy this time to be quite satisfactory and did find quite a few points to laugh at.

The premise of the movie is that the world exists such that no one can tell something that isn't truthful - they have no concept of what the truth or a lie is, they can only say what is and that included them speaking their minds constantly. Gervais character one day finds he is able to lie, and is the only person who can. It would certainly be an interesting place to live, and I suppose in many respects it could actually be a better place for many - you can imagine that politics and religion (if either exist) would take a very different form as they'd have to always tell the truth. As a side note, I should mention that this film does exclude religion altogether which suggests in a world without lying their would be no religion. This does however change after Gervais lies to his dying mother about what happens after you die and is overheard - at this point he reluctantly makes up a story about a man in the sky who is both benevolent and vengeful.

At first he takes advantage of this new found ability to gain wealth and power, but he does find it's not making him happy and he tries to do what he can to help others though when he finds they're no better off he gives up and for weeks does nothing more than lay around drinking Budweisers.

Whilst all this has been going on he chases after the affections of the character played by Jennifer Garner who believes she can only marry someone she considers to have good genes.

Overall it's not that bad a film and is fun to watch, though it's not worth going out of your way to see it as although the story is novel it is by no means a masterpiece (though to be honest I would probably consider watching it again if I noticed it on TV).