The Invention of rudeness

I am an unabashed Ricky Gervais fan. Ever since I discover the British Office on DVD about 5 years ago he has been my favorite comedian. But maybe it is time he does something that knocks him down a peg or two, and I think The Invention of Lying (2009) with all its comedic star power, cameos, and high concept may be the swift kick in the pants he needs. However I don't think he thinks there is anything wrong with the film, and that is what scares me.

I read the screenplay previous to having seen the film, and maybe that was a mistake because I laughed much harder at the written word and my concept of how I thought the actors (who I had looked up on imdb and were familiar with) would perform them than I did during the movie. In all honesty I thought it was one of the funniest things I had ever read, maybe it was meant for the page and not the screen.

This movie suffers from three main things, too many cheesy montages, Gervais's own obsession with his Atheism, and the too frequent use of the word "genetics". The concept of the film is a world without lying as we learn from a lazy narration at the beginning of the film. We also learn in this narration that Gervais character Mark Bellison will be the first man to discover how to lie (so there goes the impact of that discovery). Throughout the movie the funniest people in comedy today (Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jeffrey Tambor, Louis C. K., Jonah Hill) pop up and get to say the rudest things or "the truth", and yes sometimes these line hit, other times there is an unsettling discomfort, and not in the funny awkward way Gervais is so good at.

I don't mean to bash this movie as much as it is coming across, but I think I was more disappointed than anything else. The combination of Gervais, this script and the best comedy cast in years should have produced a comedy classic. However Gervais got way to caught up in cliched rom-com melodrama especially in the final third (I mean the final third was horrible) and it really hurt the movie. He would have been better off letting someone else direct The Invention of Lying, or maybe the simple answer would have been to bring his long time partner (not like that) Steven Merchant on board to help him.

** 1/2