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It doesn't quite follow through on its promise, and relies too heavily on shopworn romantic comedy tropes, but The Invention of Lying is uncommonly sly and funny.
All Critics (188) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (105) | Rotten (83) | DVD (9)
I kid you not when I say I sat there wondering is there nothing more to this film? Am I overlooking something? I don't think so, and I couldn't wait for the lights to go up. Jan 16, 2018 | Full Review…
I kid you not when I say I sat there wondering is there nothing more to this film? Am I overlooking something? I don't think so, and I couldn't wait for the lights to go up.
Ed Koch
Fans of Gervais from the classic TV shows Extras and The Office will enjoy the half-sentences, stop-start comic delivery and awkward pauses that have become his trademark. Nov 26, 2009 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…
Fans of Gervais from the classic TV shows Extras and The Office will enjoy the half-sentences, stop-start comic delivery and awkward pauses that have become his trademark.
Jim Schembri
There are cycles of inspiration and rebirth, but the barbed promise of the early going loses its way in choices aimed at sentimentality rather than, as Harvey Kurtzman memorably put it, humor in a jugular vein. Nov 22, 2009 | Rating: C- | Full Review…
There are cycles of inspiration and rebirth, but the barbed promise of the early going loses its way in choices aimed at sentimentality rather than, as Harvey Kurtzman memorably put it, humor in a jugular vein.
Jonathan F. Richards
It's bogged down in too many squishy romantic-comedy pieties. Oct 5, 2009
It's bogged down in too many squishy romantic-comedy pieties.
A.O. Scott
I think the first half hour would be almost impossible to sustain because it is so inspired. Oct 5, 2009
I think the first half hour would be almost impossible to sustain because it is so inspired.
Michael Phillips
The last third of the movie is as bad as anything I've seen this year, with the laughs trailing off, and half of the supporting characters, the zestier ones, being airbrushed from the frame. Oct 5, 2009 | Full Review…
The last third of the movie is as bad as anything I've seen this year, with the laughs trailing off, and half of the supporting characters, the zestier ones, being airbrushed from the frame.
Anthony Lane
The Invention of Lying, which Gervais wrote, directed, and stars in, is only a comedy for about 20 minutes. The rest is an atheistic treatise mocking anyone who believes there is a God and that He imposed a moral order on the world. Oct 9, 2018 | Full Review…
The Invention of Lying, which Gervais wrote, directed, and stars in, is only a comedy for about 20 minutes. The rest is an atheistic treatise mocking anyone who believes there is a God and that He imposed a moral order on the world.
Megan Basham
Not funny or surreal enough to distract you from its shortcomings and not subversive enough, if at all, to actually have something to say. Aug 29, 2018 | Full Review…
Not funny or surreal enough to distract you from its shortcomings and not subversive enough, if at all, to actually have something to say.
Deborah Ross
Light and disposable entertainment to be sure, but that trademark dry Gervais wit keeps the proceedings engaging enough. Jan 26, 2014 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…
Light and disposable entertainment to be sure, but that trademark dry Gervais wit keeps the proceedings engaging enough.
Michael Dequina
As mildly amusing as it can be in places, it still won't convince non-fans that Gervais can play anything other than the fool. Sep 29, 2012 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…
As mildly amusing as it can be in places, it still won't convince non-fans that Gervais can play anything other than the fool.
Ali Gray
Gervais' satiric barbs on religion, beauty, disillusionment and the basic human need for hope aim for our comfort zones, and they all hit home. Sep 29, 2011 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…
Gervais' satiric barbs on religion, beauty, disillusionment and the basic human need for hope aim for our comfort zones, and they all hit home.
Neil Pond
The premise is clever but the film is not bold enough Jun 29, 2011 | Rating: B- | Full Review…
The premise is clever but the film is not bold enough
Emanuel Levy
The kind of great idea with a rather dumb execution - much like an SNL sketch stretched for two hours and full of hits and misses - and it could have been so much better had they only come up with a more convincing reality and taken the satire all the way to mock our cultural values.
Super Reviewer
In a world where everyone tells the truth (even when unprovoked - a nit at which this and many other reviewers have picked), Mark Bellison discovers that he can lie and uses that superpower for good...for the most part. The love story arc of Anna figuring out what she wants in a mate is well-paced with a nice moment of her defending the chubby kid who got ice cream smashed in his face by the better-gened kids. Mark's weepy moment of describing a Kindergartener's conception of Heaven to his frightened, dying mother is lovely, but the rest of his Christian scripture is a bit slapstick, and I was disappointed that the movie didn't make more of a comment on spiritual solace, the truth and lies of religion, and Truth's partner: Consequences. Ricky Gervais does his cheeky hosting bit in the proselytizing scenes, but he actually gets rather endearing and emotional throughout the movie. I do love seeing PSH in oafish comedic roles, and I'm digging Louis C.K.'s Above Average Schmo schtick more and more. Jennifer Garner is also requisitely frosty and vapid, then tender and sweet. I especially dig Anna's deleted scene monologue of her appeal, which says so much about real-life Millennial women, female romantic leads in movies, and Anna's own character who just comes off as flatly bitchy at first: "In fact, there are very few things in life I care that much about. The only things I have to offer myself, or anyone else are my good looks and my affected sense of quirkiness which artistically inclined men interpret as intellect. I think my best trait is the fact that I've made very few mistakes. Socially, academically, financially, romantically. I take very few risks and therefore lead a relatively happy, light-hearted existence. Mostly though, I am a kind, sweet person with the potential of genuinely becoming a vital and interesting human being the day I take the energy I expend on hyper-self-reflexivity and apply it to actual action in the reality of my life."
Amusing if not exceptional comedy, Gervais has yet to make a movie that is anywhere near as enjoyable or original as one of his many TV shows.
Oh dear this looked ok from the trailer. Thought it would be a mix of Liar, Liar with Bruce Almighty. Unfortunately n where near as funny as those two. In fact for a comedy apart from the main plot running through the film, it tries to be a bit too serious for a comedy. As a result not that much to laugh at here. I expected a lot better and was let down.
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