Ricky Gervais heads up an all-star cameo-fest in The Invention of Lying.
He co-wrote and co-directed this one with Matthew Robinson and is the lead actor in a tale about a parallel world where no one has ever told a lie. Not even an exaggeration of the truth.
Gervais' Mark Bellison decides to just make something up that isn't true.
The concept is golden and offers many moments that are quite funny. The unfortunate part is that the idea of brutal honestly isn't as funny in this as it could be. They make it kind of cartoony and childish at points, so that it makes less raw humor and more just mild amusement. What could be hilarious ends up getting a few chuckles scattered around.
As with much or Gervais' work, there are points where it drags to an almost intolerable pace and picks back up again. This is annoying, but doesn't kill the whole movie.
Some of the jokes get beaten over and over again, which is also annoying, but again doesn't kill the movie. We get it, Gervais and Robinson think religion is a lie, so they make that the butt of all of the jokes for the second half of the movie. We get it, the girl thinks Mark is fat and ugly.
What kills the movie is that they take a good, original concept and stretch it out over cliched storyline where a boy likes a girl that is too good for him and ends up winning her over in the end. The ugly duckling story all over again, don't judge a book blahblahblah...
It feels like the audience gets robbed of what could have been a much funnier movie if it didn't take it self so seriously.
The curse of Ricky Gervais.
I'm giving The Invention of Lying a C.