Movie Review: The Invention of Lying

By Nike Chillemi

I both liked and hated this movie.

I liked that there were truly funny moments. I did laugh a lot in this movie, more so in the beginning. The second half was more thought provoking than the movie previews suggested.

Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais, who also directs the picture) is having a terrible week. He lives in an alternate reality where everyone is compelled to spew out the brutally honest truth, at all times. It’s a world where people form opinions based on surface appearances, and where everyone’s out for themselves.

Bellison gets axed from his less than successful position as a television script writer. Because he’s chubby, he’s rejected by his date, the girl of his dreams. Not having a job and being short of funds, his landlord is on the verge of evicting him. To top it off, his mother is dying in a very depressing nursing home.

He comes up with a sort of “super power” when from somewhere deep in his thought processes, he realizes he can lie. This changes his world. He convinces a bank teller who would never think of not believing him, he has more money in his account than he truly does and thus is able to withdraw a greater sum and pay his rent. One hilarious situation after another occurs as he tests his newfound ability to lie. He whispers to a number of people, “Your opinion.” They look dumbfounded by the news. Very funny.

In this world, there is no religion or religious belief. Now I’m getting to what I disliked about the movie. Bellison decides to comfort his distraught dying mother by lying to her and telling her there is a wonderful place where she will go after she dies, a place that will have a mansion for her. The doctor and nurses spill the beans and Bellison has the news media and the world wanting to know how he knows this “truth”. He goes on to give a press conference presenting a type of Ten Commandments he believes are lies and pastes them onto the back of two pizza carton tops.

My feeling is that although Bellison thinks he’s lying, he’s actually told the greatest truth of all. For as Paul says, we see the creation and have no excuse. Bellison is actually communicating the truth to his world where there is no truth. I’m not sure that’s the point the movie is trying to make, however.

The movie has a PG-13 rating due to a drug reference and the explicit sexual nature of some of its dialog. This is an alternate universe where people often say whatever pops into their heads. I would never take a minor to this film. In fact, some adults may have trouble with some of the language. There is no nudity. In fact, Bellison doesn’t so much as kiss his girlfriend.

Since this movie did well at the box office, it’s likely Christians who have seen the film know non-Chrisitans who have also seen it. Could this movie be used as an evangelism tool? I’d be lying if I said no. Why not ask a nonbeliever who has seen the movie if it made them think about what will happen to them when they die? This could be a good way to move into a discussion on God’s plan for salvation.