At the Movies with Emily and Jeff: The Invention of Lying

I love pretty much everything Ricky Gervais does. I pretty much kiss the ground he walks on. Extras, the Office, the podcasts he does -- brilliant. These few hours of TV/radio are probably 50% of the hardest laughs I've ever had in my life. We're also going to see his standup in November at the NYC comedy festival.

So when his first ever movie was coming out -- yeah, I was going to be going to see that opening night. (Thanks Jackie and Andrew for joining us!)

Now, I wasn't that psyched on the trailer. In fact, I thought the trailer looked downright disappointing. But I know that Ricky doesn't always love to go all out on comedy, he can get serious and messagey in his delivery (see: Extras and Office finale) which can be great. So I was kind of hoping that was the deal here.

(Here's where we pick up spoilers, so don't read on if you don't want to know main plot points. There's really no twists in this movie, so you're probably OK.)

Though the trailers cleverly disguised it, this was a movie about atheism. Ricky Gervais is an outspoken atheist, obviously it's an area where we differ. As the man who figures out how to lie, he tells his mother on her deathbed that there's no reason to be afraid to die, because there's a big man in the sky, and all your loved ones, and you live in a mansion and you're happy forever. After he says this, word spreads about "new information about what happens after you die" and he becomes famous.

It's not subtle, what he does here. And that's fine. It's fair. I think he presents it honestly: religion and God (not mutually exclusive), whether you believe in It or not, is something that can give many people great comfort in times of sadness. It can also cause people to do things or act a certain way based only on what they believe might happen after they die. Is that right? Of course it all depends on what they're doing. In this movie, for example, Ricky's two friends are alcoholics and loners, who don't care about improving their current lot in life because they're just waiting for their mansion in the sky.

I'm not going to get into the religious implications, because it just comes down to a difference of opinion. He's definitely being "blasphemous" and he toes the line of being disrespectful for disrespectufulness sake, but since I knew the subject matter going in, I wasn't wildly offended. I've always taken my faith as something I chose, I believe in, that gives ME comfort, and will agree to disagree with everyone who feels differently.

OK -- moving on. Is the movie good? Yes, it's good. It's not great. I think movies are destined to fall short when they hang on such an absolute -- a word where no one lies. But, really, it's not just a world where no one lies -- it's a world where everyone tells you the honest truth and has no filter. And that's for comic effect, but sometimes it is just too much. A lot of the same jokes and lines are used over and over, and I think it could have used a slight rewrite to smooth the bumps in the writing. The acting is good, the cameos by some great actors is fantastic (including one you'll never expect!). The storyline between Ricky and Jennifer Garner's character is a bit strange, it doesn't quite work given that Garner's character seems to have a one track mind. She's almost like a robot.

There's one scene in the movie that makes it worth it. Ricky's reading his version of the 10 commandments (off pizza boxes no less) and I laughed so hard at a few of the moments I almost cried. I wish there had been more of that.

Overall, it's a little too soapboxy, not quite funny enough to make up for it, and falls short of it's HUGE objective... it feels a little false. Ironically.

Final ranking: Two and a half Werschaibles.