The Invention of Lying

Ricky Gervais is a very funny dude, but, given that he appeared -- possibly even starred in -- a movie called Ghost Town that looked positively putrid, I had pretty low expectations for The Invention of Lying. I mean, the Rom-Com genre tends to castrate the funniest of funny comedians, see: Rock, Chris... look at his filmography, ugh. Why The Invention of Lying you ask? Well, it was on at the right time and a certain someone, let's call her E.Lizardbreath for anonymity's sake, didn't want to go to a late, late, movie b/c she had to work in the morning.

Surprisingly, however, the movie was pretty good for a Rom-Com. A good date movie for sure.

The premise of the film is pretty self explanitory, there's a world where there is no deceit, deception, or evading the truth, and Ricky G. figures out that he can say things that are not true. This, I think, is a pretty interesting concept that was actually discussed on a Bill Simmons Podcast not too long ago: take a lot of the things we take for granted, writing, for example. Imagine the first guy, or conceivably gal, to say maybe I should take this rock and scratch this other rock (or whatever) and make some type of mark so I can remember (some important thing). It's pretty incredible, if you think about it.

At any rate, the film derives some pretty hilarious moments from both the blunt -- "you are short and fat and have a snub nose", and the ridiculous "we need to have sex or the world's going to end", but also the observational humour and the way that we sugar coat or tip toe or rework what we want to say to make people feel better. In that sense it's a really interesting bit of pop-psychology, as is most good comedy, I guess.

So, in conclusion, if you're interested in seeing something easy, light, entertaining, that you'll feel pretty good about at the end The Invention of Lying is a good move.