Frat Boy At the Movies: The Invention of Lying
on October 17, 2009 at 12:01 am
The Invention of Lying has a most awesome premise, but the execution is a little off. It chugs along great for the first two acts, then spins out midway through the third and never quite regains momentum. (spoilers ahead)
One of the problems in the movie is not just that no one can lie, the characters seem to offer up the truth for no reason. Another problem that doesn’t really get addressed is, wouldn’t honesty at some level be great? How can you be a criminal and not lie? How can Rob Lowe’s character be an asshole and not lie? If Jennifer Gardner isn’t attracted to Ricky Gervais and tells him that, isn’t she telling the truth? So why does she fall in love with him later?
Don’t get me wrong, there are some great bits in the movie. Like a completely honest commercial about Coke and a movie company where fiction doesn’t exist and all people do is read about history to the audience. But there are some big comedy names in this who get to do very little, most notably, Christopher Guest. Louis CK and Jonah Hill play Ricky’s buddies, but they too get almost nothing to do. I really wanted to see Louis CK run amok with the invention too.
Still, it’s not bad. But with the big slate of movies coming out just this weekend, the Invention of Lying has probably run its course. It did okay, but not great. It’s worth seeing though. Definitely a solid rental and worth seeing if you can catch it in theater before it goes. I give the Invention of Lying 6 out of 10 keggers.
