I was on a plane two nights ago, and I made an executive decision to watch the movie they were showing. I still had a bit of a headache after drinking too much the night before, so Sudoku didn’t seem like the best idea. Instead, I listened to music during episodes of tv shows I don’t watch and tried closing my eyes for a bit. When it was time for the feature presentation though, I was all eyes. The movie was “The Invention of Lying,” starring Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Garner. I don’t go to movies often, but I’d wanted to see this one when it originally came out. I like Ricky Gervais quite a bit, and “Extras” on HBO was a great series (especially the second season). I like Ms. Garner too, though most of that is due to her being really hot in the first couple of seasons of “Alias.” The premise had intrigued me: In a world in which everyone has always told the truth, a man (Gervais) tells the first ever lie…and hilarity ensues. In theory.
The first problem I had was not the film’s fault whatsoever. The monitor that I was looking at had some weird color issues going on. It was almost like I was looking at film negatives of the movie, where light colors were replaced by shades of purple. This wasn’t as distracting as you might think. Oh sure, it looked like the characters were wearing weird masks for most of the movie, and daytime scenes had artsy-looking purple skies instead, but I don’t think it got in the way of the story. If anything, it made it visually interesting, like some of the recent Dr. Seuss movies, Tim Burton films, or even “cool” credit card commercials. It actually worked with the story, having a cartoon-y background matching an idealized version of society.
That said, lots of other things didn’t work for me. Five big ones, in fact. First off, I was initially pleased to see certain names in the opening credits. Namely, comedian Louis C.K. is often hilarious, and Jonah Hill has had some good moments in his career to date. However, Mr. C.K. was criminally underused here, to the point that I’m hoping there were some hilarious and vulgar scenes I just missed because they were edited out for the flying public. And Jonah Hill wasn’t funny either, unless you find humor in someone talking about how horrible his life is and the ways in which he’s considering offing himself.
That leads nicely to my second gripe: it wasn’t funny. The movie had an interesting concept and Ricky Gervais is likeable enough, but I can’t recall a single laugh-out-loud moment. By that, I don’t even just mean for myself. I’ve been on planes before where people are cackling like mad over “Four Christmases” or some shit like that. No one in my seat’s vicinity laughed audibly a single time. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a problem when a movie’s billed as a comedy.
Third up: Jennifer Garner’s character was unworthy of the devotion heaped on her. When we meet her, she’s extremely shallow and only cares about looks and wealth. Since everyone’s always honest, she says as much to Ricky Gervais’s character. Later, she gets to like him more, but still won’t be with him because his physical traits wouldn’t produce the best-looking offspring possible. It’s during this time that Ricky Gervais tells her how wonderful she is and that she’s the sweetest person he’s ever met. He means it, but the audience hasn’t been shown a single reason to agree with him. That doesn’t make me want to root for them to be together, and if anything, the desire to be with her shows that his character also overvalues the importance of physical beauty. (I’m pretty sure that’s the opposite of one of the film’s big points.)
Problem number four is a doozy. Without getting too spoilery, it’s safe to assume that things spin out of control once he gets the hang of lying. In a plot point I didn’t anticipate, the entire second act of the movie is essentially railing against organized religion. He makes some stuff up about a “man in the sky” who decides what happens to everyone, and we’re supposed to laugh (I think) at the idiots who blindly believe in that silly concept. Personally, I’m not even close to calling myself religious, and I still found that whole major storyline to be mildly offensive.
Lastly, the ending kinda sucked. Without revealing too much, there was a line that I fully expected to be said in a sweet moment because they so clearly were building up to it, but then it never was. Also, at the very end, they totally glossed over something huge that needed to be addressed. (If you’ve seen this movie and want to email me at pdawg@n2rh.com, I can be more specific about both of these things.) Basically, it felt like they forgot that they needed to end the movie somehow and threw the last few scenes together in hopes that no one would notice. Guess what – I did.
So I was pretty disappointed in the movie. Part of that is due to my higher expectations before it began – after all, I didn’t even think about putting my earphones in for “Whip It!” on the flight out. But hey, “The Invention of Lying” passed the time and made the plane ride go a little faster. Maybe I’ll rent it, watch it again, and see if I enjoy it in a more comfortable setting and without a headache. No, wait, that was a lie.