As I’ve previously mentioned. I like rules. I like considering rules. I like discussing what the rules are. And I like the fact that there are rules. The Invention of Lying is a film with one, easy to sum up, yet incredibly complicated rule. No one can lie. Ricky Gervais is Mark Bellison. In his 40’s, Mark is alone, poor, and he’s just lost his job. He’s a loser, and he’s just invented the lie. In a world where no one else has ever lied, or even had the ability to lie before, he assumes his new skill can be used to his advantage. Mark’s right.

The rule of not being able to lie, isn’t that simple. If you spent one day of your life without telling a lie, it wouldn’t be that hard. If it came to it, you just wouldn’t talk to anyone [the ‘If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all’ philosophy]. So in order to write a film with some dialogue, Gervais has tweaked the basic formula somewhat. From the get go, when his date Anna (Jennifer Garner) – I know what you’re thinking… ‘what the hell (which doesn’t exist) is Jennifer Garner’s character, doing on a date with Gervais’ character!’. Well she’s thinking the same thing. She’s also thinking about finishing a hefty wank (upstairs) whilst he waits for her on the sofa. We know this, because she tells him.

This isn’t simply ‘not lying’, this is ‘having to say exactly whatever is on your mind, whether you’ve been asked to or not’. OK, so there’s the rule. It’s assumed that to have a thought about someone, and not vocalise it, is considered lying, and people don’t know how to do that. Fine. Mark is a loser remember, so if someone thinks of him as such, they tell him. “You’re a fat faggot.” Now if I knew someone was thinking I was a fat faggot (if they’d told me personally or not), I’d think they were a bitch. In Mark’s world, I’d tell them such. But he doesn’t. He doesn’t think anything bad about anyone, even though they’re all constantly treating him like shit. He’s not fine with it, he gets upset. But he doesn’t say so. Surely this is breaking the rule?

Mark doesn’t seem like he’s used to this world at all. It’s like he moved to ‘No Lying Land’ a few years ago, and hasn’t fully adjusted to people telling him he’s fat. He understands when it happens, but he gets upset. As if there was part of him hoping not to hear it. But no one else is like that. I was looking forward to the point at which he starts lying. I wondered what the spark would be. What would trigger this ‘ability’. I won’t ruin it for you if you’re wondering that yourself, but I can tell you it’s the shittest of all the possibilities. The film itself doesn’t quite seem to have worked out what it wants the rules to be. It seems to say that because no one can lie, they’re for some reason obsessed with money, status, power, and mostly looks. It’s a very cynical view of the world to assume that a short tubby person can only get girls by lying.

There is an incredible amount wrong with this film in terms of these rules. Far far far too much to go into now. However I realise this ‘breaking of the rules’ will only matter if you follow them so stringently as I do – and most people do not. Sadly the film itself (away from the concept) doesn’t fair any better. Mark starts off a loser. He does something bad to improve his life. With you so far… normal film narrative yes. So at some point it goes wrong, and he realises that not lying is the best thing to do right? No. The problem, is Mark is a nice guy to begin with. He’s the nicest guy. Or at least the only one who’s not horrible. He learns how to lie, but never uses it for evil. He never gets any comeuppance, never comes to a realisation that he has to change his ways (because he’s never had bad ways). So what exactly am I watching for? What do I want from this guy? What do I want him to do, or to happen to him? I just don’t know. I’m too confused.

Upside, it was funny. Not too many memorable lines, but definitely quotable (at the time). This is Gervais’ first foray into writing a feature. And I have to say it shows. I’m not saying it should. Not that I expected it to be bad because it was his first one. But he’s got the structure, the pace, the emotion, all wrong. The problem with this picture is just that the concept is too damn big. Gervais seems to me like a very ‘last-minute’ kind of guy. A ‘we’ll wing it’ sort of guy. That’s all very well and good, and it works for comedy sure. But a proper film script that you want to make sense after introducing such a huge head fuck concept? No.

If only a touch more time had been spent over the script thinking… ‘What would our characters do in this situation?’ ‘What would they think of this?’ Or ‘How would they react when…’

I think it’s a great concept. And a great film could be written around it. But this isn’t it.