THE INVENTION OF LYING ☆☆☆

Here's another film opening this week that tries for some drama when it's mostly comedy.

At least that's what the marketing plan says, but guess what, it lied. New comedic lead and British funnyman Ricky Gervais brings something more to "The Invention of Lying," a mix of drama and comedy. The movie works this way, if a little oddly.

Gervais stars and co-produces/co-writes/co-directs this very simple, small production about an alternate world where no one can lie, has lied, or will lie, and Gervais' Mark Bellison is the guy who finds out when in depression and desperation that he can "make up" truths and people, who are utterly gullible, readily accept them (the word "lie" and it's components are never used). What makes this movie good is, for one, Gervais, who has terrific comic timing, and for good measure that sheepish grin that makes me giggle: he spills out utterances, stutters, starts and stops whole sentences when his character tries explaining something in frustration, or is in confusion and tries to voice it. Whenever he does this I crack up, and I admit after seeing him in "Ghost Town" last year, with the same comedic style, this was the only reason I saw this movie. I think I'm becoming a fan of Ricky, and my surprise that "The Invention of Lying" was something more, when he also co-wrote and co-directed the film, Gervais will most likely end up on my, and I hope everyones, list of great A-list comedic actors working right now.

But, let me go back to that "something more" part. Gervais starts the first half of the movie as you would expect, going through this man's life as a poor film screenwriter (who can make up great material better than a screenwriter?!) and his cohorts and bosses despise him, also for the reasons you would expect: he's fat and ugly. His first date has the same opinions. This first half is mainly characters "voicing" what's on their mind's, where every other line is complete, unabashed, utter truth. When Mark first meets his date, Anna (Jennifer Garner), one of the first things she says is that she just finished masturbating, and that she'd like to continue knowing now how ugly her date is and that she probably wouldn't get anything tonight, or want to. It all goes pritty much like this, but it's funny, well written, with some clever dialogue executed nicely by a good cast ("I've always hated you." "What...?" "Hated you." "Oh, I didn't know that." "Yeah, a lot of people knew it, and I also turned a lot of them against you."), and some smartly ridiculous one liners ("I'm a one armed, German space explorer!"). Oops, I got a little off here, let me get back to that "something more" thing.

Somewhere along half way through, Gervais suddenly goes dramatic. In a scene where a character is near death, Mark does a teary monologue. When the rest of the movie is comedy, with no hint-ful tidbits of dramatic foreshadowing, I didn't know whether to laugh or get teary eyed myself at the performance Gervais gave. It was a bizarre performance, and a bizarre turn for the movie. Was Gervais going black comedy, or was he really going emotional? By the end of the movie, you realize, it was emotional, and the rest of the movie goes that way. "The Invention of Lying" than takes that twist to become the sort of philosophical mind juice that most comedies end up feeding us when they want to give you a "life lesson." "Lying" is no exception, but the turn worked, and made sense, and was still funny, thoughtful and touching. I guess only Gervais could have pulled it off, and he did here.

The whole lying thing sort of flies past at some point when the last half goes that dramatic route, and becomes that mind juice, after Mark tells one great, big lie, and turns everyone over heels (I won't tell you what the lie is, but I think if you're the type of person who believes in it you might be upset to learn that it was represented as a lie in the first place). The scene where Mark tells everyone about this lie is the funniest set piece in the movie, and I guarantee it will make you laugh. "Lying" then sticks with the huge after effects of this lie, while also having Mark trying to win over Anna. This story path will go on until the end of the movie, and even though it's a nice story turn and works, I wish "Lying" would have remained about the invention of lying through the rest of the movie. Well, that's just me.

"The Invention of Lying" worked, and I liked it, but it didn't suit me every well. See this movie, anyway, it might suit you. Gervais is funny, the movie is funny, and the rest of the cast delivers the funny, too (surprisingly, from the few A-list cameos in the film). And for you film buffs out there, you will get a kick out of the pseud-Hollywood Lecture Films studio where Mark works as a screenwriter. I just died when the films they end up making are nothing but intellectuals in tweed sitting in a "it's story time"-like set-up blandly reading the script rather than actors and sets playing the movie. Ah, everyone loves to poke fun at Hollywood, even filmmakers themselves.