NOTE: This is a film only review.

After missing Ricky Gervais' first major film, Ghost Town, I decided straightaway when I saw the trailer for this film that I would not miss his second - The Invention of Lying.

Plot

The basic premise of the film is, according to most things I read prior to seeing it, about an alternative world where the concept of lying does not exist. Everyone tells the truth. All the time.

I don't entirely agree with this. It's true that the concept of lying does not exist. But the people in this world go further than telling the truth, they actively say what they are thinking, often with humorous consequences (for us anyway).

The film follows Mark Bellison, described from the outset as one of life's losers, who suddenly discovers the ability to lie, something which ultimately turns his life around. But can it really make him happy?

The Cast

> Ricky Gervais is the main actor in this film. In fact, he's pretty much the main everything. Director, Producer, you name it. He plays Mark Bellison, a rather unsuccessful script writer for 'Lecture Films' (essentially an on-screen narrator lecturing about history) who is not such a hit with the ladies. I really liked this character and I thought Gervais portrayed him well, although I'm not familiar with any of Gervais' acting work (apart from that small role he had in Stardust which he tweeted like a bird for most of anyway). Gervais does that mumbling, bumbling thing so well and did Mark a likeable, if somewhat sad, character.

> Jennifer Garner plays the object of Mark's affections - Anne McDoogles - a beautiful, successful woman, clearly out of his league. She only agrees to a date with Mark to satisfy her mother, who doesn't want her daughter to be alone for the rest of her life. Although Jennifer Garner suited the role and played it well, there was a real lack of chemistry between her and Gervais which was disappointing and only served to remind me that no Hollywood budget could ever be high enough to pay an actress such as Jennifer Garner to kiss someone like Gervais.

> There were quite a few famous faces in the film, including Rob Lowe, who did a pretty good job at playing the rather unlikeable Brad Kessler, Jonah Hill as the suicidal neighbour Frank, Christopher Guest as on-screen narrator of Lecture Films, Nathan Goldfrappe and Tina Fey as Shelle, Mark's secretary. A real highlight of the film has to be a cameo from Shaun Williamson....yes, BARRY from Eastenders!

Overall, I thought the cast were good in their roles, but I would have liked to have seen a bit more chemisty between some of the characters. I also found it a bit weird how a lack of lying also lead to a lack of compassion for some characters, but not all. While Mark's boss seemed to find it genuinely hard to tell the truth and tried to avoid situations where the truth would lead to a confrontation, most of the other characters told the truth with no regard for the feelings of others. It also struck me as odd that it took having the ability to lie for Mark to be able to tell his suicidal neighbour to perhaps rethink his decision to take his own life.

The Technical Stuff

I'm not much of an expert on such things, but the film was directed as one would expect a romantic comedy to be. There were no surprises in terms of annoying camera effects or angles, although I can only compare to this to other films of its genre, having never seen a film directed by Ricky Gervais or Matthew Robinson before.

In terms of the soundtrack, it gets my thumbs up. Music was used throughout the film to break up the dialogue and help move the story forward, which I thought was a nice touch. A more subtle, feeling-inducing music was used during some scenes too, to good effect.

There's also some narration at this film, at the beginning and end of the film. It doesn't intrude on the film, and does create a nice way to open and close the film.

The running time is about right too, pretty well paced and at 99 minutes, not too long.

My Opinion

I'm still a little undecided about this film. It was not at all what I was expecting. I fear that the hype surrounding this film and the fact that it's Ricky Gervais could really play against it and turn it into a flop. It's not anywhere near as funny as I expecting it to be, I think this is because I'm so used to seeing Ricky Gervais doing stand-up. It was, however, a really clever look at what life would be like if lies didn't exist and how they really do form part of our everyday lives - in advertising, for example. It also provides a sort of moral lessons on when lies can be good (sometimes we don't want to be given it straight) and when lies can have rather adverse consequences.

It shows a life where fiction does not exist and to be honest, neither does a sense of imagination. The inhabitants of this world are not free to imagine, invent, create. Thus they come across as being rather robotic, pre-programmed into thinking a certain way and believing certain things. There's no such thing as organised religion, which is sort of introduced with the introduction of lying. I guess some could take offence at the parallel drawn between this belief in lies and religion, but it's done in a fairly light-hearted and clever way (for the most part).

One thing that really did strike me was the amount of product placement used in this film. It was a little odd, I have to say, and at times a tad distracting. I don't quite know what purpose that served, but it did let the film down a little, making it seem a little more...fake.

The lack of chemistry between Mark and Anne was also disappointing. At the beginning of the film it worked well, as the feelings were all very one-sided, but as their friendship progesses, it becomes harder and harder to really believe that the small amount of warmth Anne claims to feel towards Mark is genuine. I did, however, see Mark's influence on Anne develop throughout the film and Garner did a good job in portraying this.

The robotic quality of a lot of the characters troubled me somewhat. While ALL characters tell the truth, some of them seem to struggle with it more than others. There were some characters who were clearly saying what they thought for the sake of being mean, which again, takes the premise of the film further than its description. They're not telling the truth, they're speaking their mind, which is not entirely the same thing.

The classification of this film is 12A, which I think is about right. I don't think children under the age of 12 would particularly want to watch this film, and I don't think they should, but that's for a parent to decide on a individual basis. The main reason that I would say this film is unsuitable is that it deals with themes in an honest way, which could be difficult for young children to appreciate. Death is one of these themes, and the main reason I say that this film isn't necessarily suitable for young children. There's also a few sexual references, although the use of bad language is kept to a minimum.

All in all, I did enjoy this film, but I fear that many will be disappointed with it. It's a clever idea, and it does make you think, but more than anything, I found myself trying to pull the idea apart and looking for mistakes in the theory that no-one can lie. As I've already stated, the basic idea for the film in itself doesn't quite go far enough to explaining how these people really live - it's like there's no compassion there, their sense of emotions are diminished and facts dominate their lives. They lack creativity, they lack imagination and a lot of very human qualities, making a lot of the characters seem almost robot-like. It was a funny film, with a couple of laugh out loud moments, but these were more sparse than I had been expecting. I would recommend the film if you like Gervais and his basic idea for the film, but don't expect a laugh-a-minute comedy, or you will be bitterly disappointed.

I'll give this one a 3 out of 5.

Summary:
Classification: 12A
Running time: 99 minutes
Release date: 07.10.09