What Do The Critics Say?
"This entertaining and thought provoking movie ultimately urges the viewer to consider how important the truth is and where lies fit in to our lives. This black comedy works because we relate to where such honesty and dishonesty fit. Imagine living in a world where only the truth exists and no one is a skeptic."
Melissa Algaze DARK HORIZONS
"A little comedy that dares to think big, Ricky Gervais makes the leap to Hollywood comedy lead with aplomb in a sweet film that will give you a whole new appreciation of the power of telling porkies."
Catherine Bray CHANNEL 4 FILM
"Wittier than your average romcom, with a conceit that’ll have you dreaming up your own comedic reality checks. A treat for fans: but torture for those who have tired of Gervais’ naked ambition."
Jane Crowther TOTAL FILM
"Watch Gervais' face as Mark uses his new ability to provide encouragement, and enjoy a comedy that may be about the invention of lying but knows how to tell the truth."
Nell Minow BELIEFNET
"The film touches on subjects as strange as reality television and as profound as the nature of true love, the integrity of religion, or the value of genetics in relationships. Yet it does so with whimsy, gentle sarcasm and entertaining wit."
Bruce Kirkland JAM! MOVIES
"A funny, cleverly-conceived, heartfelt expression of a point of view that is not nearly my own."
Mike McGranaghan AISLE SEAT
"A brilliant and original concept, The Invention of Lying is witty, seriously funny and utterly charming. The trick to it all is that Gervais' alternate reality, where there is no deceit, flattery or fiction, is grounded solidly in a credible way. I giggled, I laughed, I shed a little tear."
Louise Keller URBAN CINEFILE
"Ricky Gervais is a brave and creative talent and this subversive, ultimately romantic film about the value of white lies certainly has its moments."
Margarett Pomeranz ABC AT THE MOVIES
"The Invention of Lying is a satisfying comedy with a fair number of solid laughs. Its strange concept and storyline make it something of a curiosity, too: you can have fun thinking about it even after it's over."
Eric D Snider CINEMATICAL
"One of the best and most thought-provoking American comedies to come along in some considerable time. Is the film funny? Yes. Is it thoughful? Yes. 4 1/2 STARS."
Ken Hanke MOUNTAIN XPRESS
The Inside Story
"Believe it or not, I’ve cast myself as a tubby, middle-aged loser. It’s a stretch," quips co-writer/director, producer and star Ricky Gervais, who may be taking his famous self-deprecating humor to a new level in his latest bigscreen rom/com, "The Invention of Lying". In a world without lies, everyone is a realist. Life is straightforward and simple. There is no imagination, no fiction, nothing that isn’t the absolute truth. So if you were the only person in the world who could lie, what would you do? This question intrigued Gervais. "I was really attracted to the idea," he stated. That idea first came to co-writerand director Matthew Robinson after a weekend spent watching episodes of "The Twilight Zone" and reading Harlan Ellison. "Somehow," he offers, “the combination of those two had given my brain the food for strange, large concepts." "The concept was completely original," recalls producer Oly Obst. Fellow producer Lynda Obst ("Contact" & "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days") declared: "This notion that lying didn’t exist and people said exactly what was on their minds as a matter of course was absolutely intriguing. What the world would be like if people utterly told the truth, completely unfiltered, was both hilarious and sort of philosophically fascinating to me." With apologies to the film’s star, Robinson describes Gervais's character Mark (actually inspired by Geravis himself) as "a loser with no options who is less than averagely smart, less than averagely wealthy, less than averagely confident: less than average in every single area. At the same time, "if Mark is truly honest with himself, he’d have to admit he has a little bit of anger inside of him about his status in life. And he also has a little bit of life in him just waiting to come out. And we see that he has heart. So once he gets this power, once he learns to lie, it’s not a huge jump for him to become a much more vibrant, full-of-life character." That first lie. It begins innocently enough, but the outcome is beyond Mark’s expecations. Then one thing leads to another and the floodgates open, bringing Mark the kind of success that would make most men feel like they’re at the top of the world. But Mark is not most men. And, as often happens with a liar, once you start, you can’t stop. But before any of that can happen, in this world where the truth is as plain as the snub nose on your face, rank is openly determined primarily by looks and wealth. As the film opens, Mark (fourty, single and schlubby) embarks on his first date with the beautiful Anna, the long-time object of his affection. "Anna is the cousin of Mark’s best friend," Gervais revealed. "She’s gorgeous and Mark’s had a crush on her for years, even though she’s completely out of his league." Playing the role of the genetically blessed Anna is Golden Globe winning actress and mother of two (Violet Anne & Seraphina Rose Elizabeth Affleck) Jennifer Garner, who thought the script was unlike anything she had ever read. "I laughed out loud," she recalls. "She brings so much heart and so much goofiness to the role, and no pretense," says Oly Obst. "Anna wears her heart on her sleeve and Jen’s emotions just register on her face so quickly and perfectly." "Often in acting, when you say a line you really mean something else," 2004 ShoWest Female Star of Tomorrow and 2005 Screen Actors Guild Award winner Garner ("Alias") says. "There’s subtext. But because of the way this world is, subtext doesn’t exist. You say exactly what you mean all the time. So it was just a matter of stripping away the normal actor tricks and trying to be as honest and clean and uncomplicated in the delivery as possible." "Jen is an amazing comedienne," Lynda Obst notes.
"Her timing and her deadpan performance as Anna McDoogles just light up the screen. It’s a critical part because Anna is the person through whom we first discover the unconscious way they speak in this world. And her entrance in this movie is, I think, one of the most hilarious scenes in the film," Lynda Obst observes. Garner remembers: "I blushed when I read the first scene I had. It was the first scene I shot and, well; it went in directions I’d never gone on film before." Blushing aside, Garner found her character to be very optimistic, and with good reason. "She’s a little higher up on the genetic scale, which is what’s important in this world, and she makes plenty of money as a function of that. Anna sees her next step in life as finding her genetic match and having children. Unfortunately, even if she really liked Mark, she can’t have children with him because he isn’t her physical equal. It’s sort of an unwritten rule." Mark is well aware of his shortcomings in that area, as is everyone else. "Mark turns out to be the first person to tell a lie," Garner revealled, "and because no one’s ever heard a lie before, they believe anything he says. He becomes very powerful and tries to use that to win Anna’s heart." Surprisingly, though, despite becoming her equal and more in material ways, Mark’s wealth and power can’t turn this frog into a prince in Anna’s eyes, at least outwardly. Anna only agrees to go out with Mark initially as a favor to her cousin Greg, played by comedian Louis CK. "Greg is kind of living moment by moment. He has no ambition. He thinks about what he’s going to eat next, he likes drinking because it makes him feel drunk. He’ll just take whatever comes," 1999 Emmy Award winner CK offers. "Greg’s the guy who never had the thought that things could be better." "Greg is, in every sense, one notch worse off than Mark," says Robinson. Unlike CK, whose work has long been a favorite of both Robinson and Gervais. "Ricky and I are both huge fans of Louis’ standup, and we wanted to figure out a way to hang out with him all the time." Putting CK in the movie was an easy solution for the co-directors, whose next challenge, Robinson teases, "was to figure out which role meant he’d be on set at least seventy five percent of the time. Outside of that, he was also beyond perfect for Greg." "Amongst everything else: the concept, the romance; it’s a buddy movie," four time BAFTA TV Award winner (2002, '03, 04 & '07) Gervais notes . "Greg is Mark’s best friend. His only friend, really, even though he’s sort of bad for Mark Bellison. But Greg’s loyal, and loyalty is better than anything. We’re a little bit like Stan and Ollie. Steal from the best." Less committed to their friendship, or life itself, is Mark’s depressive neighbor, Frank, who’d like to kill himself but doesn’t quite have the moxie. "Frank is always on the verge of suicide, and Mark is bascially trying to convince him not to kill himself," Jonah Hill ("Superbad"), who plays Frank offered. Hill found the character to be "a lot darker than I’ve ever played. I was happy to do a little more dramatic stuff." Before he was one of Hollywood’s busiest young comedy actors, Hill worked as an intern for Matt Robinson. "Jonah is one of the funniest people ever," Robinson states. "He’s even funnier off screen than he is on screen, which is probably hard to imagine since he does such great work in his films." Hill has also been a long-time fan of Gervais's work. "I loved the script Ricky and Matt wrote. I was flattered they asked me to be a part of it." In addition to improving his own life and the lives of his friends, Mark’s greatest impetus for telling a lie is to comfort his long-suffering, dying mother, Martha, played by 2007 IFTA winner Fionnula Flanagan.
"In casting Martha, we decided not to go the comedic route and to just find a truly great actress who could be real and honest," says Robinson. "Fionnula is one of the most talented actresses around." The Irish Film and& Television Award winner for her role as Elizabeth in 2005's "Transamerica" reveals that Martha is frightened of dying. "She thinks this is the end, that it’ll just be nothingness for all eternity. Mark can’t stand to see her so scared, so he begins to tell her that it won’t be. He tells her that death isn’t really the end, and that after she dies, it will be wonderful. Martha totally believes him because in this society," explains Flanagan, "nobody lies and people just speak their minds all the time, whatever comes into their heads. But Mark does what nobody ever has ever done before: he makes up a story." "In addition to being unlucky in life and in love, Mark is unlucky at work as well. "Mark writes for a film company, but in this world films are simply people reading historical facts or scientific facts on camera," says Gervais. 2004 Golden Satellite Award winner Jeffrey Tambor ("Arrested Developement") plays Mark’s boss, Anthony. "Anthony’s the head of the film division, but he’s in over his head," says Tambor. "And he admits it, of course. He’s not good at confrontation, so even though he tells the others he’s going to fire Mark every day, he tries to put it off whenever he comes face to face with the task." Mark’s brutally sharp, gossipy receptionist (who can’t wait for his departure), is played by seven time Emmy Award and two time Golden Globe winning comedy writer and actress Tina Fey ("Baby Mama"). "Funniest woman alive," Robinson says. "Shelly is somewhat mean-spirited, and one of the 'better class' of people in our world. She’s just starting out at Lecture Films, but you know that one day she’ll be an executive and probably running that place, so she’s one of the people that keeps Ricky in his loser place." Shelley isn’t the only roadblock Mark has to deal with at the office. His rival, both professionally and personally, is the ideal physical specimen and super smug, Brad Kessler, played by 2001 & '02 Screen Actors Guild Award winner Rob Lowe. "Brad is a jerk," says Gervais, "but he’s got the jawline." "Brad is the top dog," says Lowe, who appeared in three Austin Powers movies. "He’s the best writer, he’s the Alpha male. After Mark has been fired, Brad goes to him to say how badly he feels and that he just wanted Mark to know, before he left, that Brad also hates him. Because everybody tells the truth, unprompted. Brad is Mark's nemesis throughout the movie, especially when it comes to Anna." "Brad’s not a villain because he’s a jerk; he has every right to be a jerk because he’s better looking, has more money, is smarter and is a better writer than Mark: and gets the prettier girls. He’s not to blame; he just happens to be Brad Kessler, and who wouldn’t want to be Brad Kessler?" Robinson asked. To round out the cast, Gervais and Robinson sprinkled in a few Ricky Gervais regulars, including "The Office" and "Extras"co-creator Stephen Merchant and "Extras" co-star Shaun Williamson, who both appear in a flashback from Mark’s childhood. "I’m just here because I’m cheap, I live locally and I like to think I’m a reliable pair of hands," Merchant (who joined Williamson for the only part of the shoot to take place in England) jokes. "I was cast because Ricky thinks I bear an uncanny resemblance to him," Williamson chips in. "Working with this cast was such a pleasure," says Gervais. "I still can’t believe my luck. I can’t believe these people want to work with me. Truth is, I’m a bit of a chancer. I’m very lucky to be in this position and no one’s found me out yet."
Synopsis
 "The Invention of Lying" takes place in an alternate reality in which lying; even the concept of a lie, does not exist. Everyone: from politicians to advertisers to the man and woman on the street, speaks the truth and nothing but the truth with no thought of what the consequence may be. But when a down on his luck loser named Mark suddenly develops the ability to tell a lie, he finds that dishonesty has its rewards. In a world where every word is assumed to be the absolute truth, Mark easily lies his way to fame and fortune. But lies have a way of spreading, and Mark begins to realize that things are getting a little out of control when one of his tallest tales, spoken to comfort his dying mother, is taken as being: well, gospel. With the entire world now hanging on his every word, there is only one thing Mark has not been able to lie his way into: the heart of the woman he loves, the beautiful Anna.
The Verdict
"A super cast and a storyline with a surprisingly entertaining premiss are the hallmarks for Ricky Gervias's latest big screener: "The Invention Of Lying". Gervais, Golden Globe winning star of and co-creator of the mockumentary, "The Office", won over cinemagoers when he appeared alongside Greg Kinnear and Téa Leoni in "Ghost Town", playing Bertram Pincus D.D.S., a role not dissimilar to the one he plays here. Pincus, though highly credentialed, was a 'loser' who found love. This time around, Ricky plays Mark, another loser who eventually finds love. In "Ghost Town" Gervais's character dealt with dead peoples ghosts who hadn't quite passed over to the netherworld. In "The Invention Of Lying", his character lives in a world where brutal honesty prevails: until Mark discovers, how to tell a lie. It's an ability he alone has. In Mark's world, no-one has ever told a lie. That premiss lends itself to a myriad of possibilities. Especialy when it comes to a rom/com. Garner and Lowe give first-rate performances with Garner playing love interest Anna and Lowe playing Mark's rival, the genetically opposed, Brad. Some may find, at ninety nine minutes, "The Invention Of Lying" feels a tad long. Those not familiar with "The Office" and Gervais's style of humour, should hire "Ghost Town" before they head for their local multiplex. The star of "Ghost Town" impresses in this clever, wickedly-witty, whimsical, quirky, romantic comedy! 4 STARS."
Who Plays Who?
Ricky Gervais
Jennifer Garner
Rob Lowe
Tina Fey
Jonah Hill
Louis C.K.
Jeffrey Tambor
Fionnula Flanagan
Donna Sorbello
Stephanie March
Ruben Santiago-Hudson
John Hodgman
Nathan Corddry
Jimmi Simpson
Martin Starr
Jason Bateman
Christopher Guest
Alton Fitzgerald White
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Mark
Anna
Brad
Shelley
Frank
Greg
Anthony
Martha Bellison
Anna's Mother
Blonde
Landlord
Wedding Overseer
News Reporter
Bob
Waiter #1
Doctor
Nathan Goldfrappe
Angelo Badsmith
The Production Team
Directors
Written by
Producers
Original Music
Cinematography
Film Editing
Casting
Production Designer
Art Direction
Set Decoration
Costume Design
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Ricky Gervais & Matthew Robinson
Ricky Gervais & Matthew Robinson
Ricky Gervais/Dan Lin/Lynda Obst/Oly Obst
Tim Atack
Tim Suhrstedt
Chris Gill
Lynn Kressel & Francine Maisler
Alec Hammond
Priscilla Elliott
Kathleen Rosen
Susie DeSanto
Run Time 99 minutes
Rated M [AUST]
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