Since this movie is about a world in which everyone tells the truth, let me admit something. Nightly TIFF premieres + having to go to your day job every day = unending sleep deprivation. My central nervous system is shutting down from lack of sleep since TIFF began. I subsist on nothing but Starbucks green tea lemonade and poppy seed loaf for breakfast, Pusateri’s sandwiches and VitaminWater for lunch and frozen TV dinners in the 45 minutes that I’m actually home each day, getting ready to go out to another movie. It’s making me nuts. I haven’t felt this wrecked since law school.
But it is so much fun. SO MUCH fun! And I can’t wait to do it again next year.
Let’s start with details from the red carpet for The Invention of Lying. Melodie and I hung around the lobby of the Elgin Theatre before the movie, in hopes of catching sight of the stars. Rob Lowe walked by briskly and didn’t talk to anyone. Disappointing. But Ricky Gervais stopped and greeted us and let me take a photo of him and Melodie. Fastest picture I ever took. I was so afraid that he was going to walk away before I took it that I was literally sweating. Then I met Jennifer Garner. Photos do not do that woman justice. She was beautiful in person. Absolutely gorgeous. And she gave me an autograph. I was so star-struck I just stood there with my mouth open. Not attractive.
Gervais’ movies sometimes surprise me because I know he has a slightly raunchier sense of humor than he usually displays in movies. I saw Extras and his comedy special from Madison Square Garden (hilarious), but his movies are generally romantic comedies. That’s not to say they are bad because they’re not. I saw Ghost Town at TIFF last year and enjoyed as, as I enjoyed The Invention of Lying this year.
The hilarity and horror of a world without lies is immediately apparent. Jennifer Garner’s opening line of the movie (I won’t spoil it for you) sets the laughter on track and it snowballs from there. You cringe every time one character delivers the cold, hard, blunt truth to another. Can you seriously imagine a world with no lies? No boyfriend who says you look “fine” even when you don’t. No co-worker who smiles and nods when you speak instead of telling you how much they loathe your very existence. Imagine what dating would be like. Actually, I’ll tell you what it’s like: it’s like Jennifer Garner’s character (Anna) telling Gervais’ character (Mark) that he has no shot with her because he doesn’t have the attractive genetic code she desires to pass onto her children. It’s like Anna on the phone with her mother during the date, insisting that she most definitely won’t be sleeping with poor Mark. It’s hilarious and sad at the same time.
Because there are no lies in the world, there is essentially no imagination. Mark works as a screenwriter, but the movies his company makes aren’t like anything we’ve seen before. They’re “lecture films” (coincidentally the name of the company), where people narrate historical stories. There’s also no religion. That is, until the first and only man in the world who is capable of lying – Mark – comes down from on high with his 9 “commandments” taped to pizza boxes and proceeds to weave a fictional tale of a man in the sky that is meant to comfort those who are afraid of what happens after they die.
Gervais brings a range of acting chops to this film. Alternating between hilarious self-deprecation and behaving in a sweet enough manner to convince any woman to look past his unattractive genetic code and want to give him a hug, he made me laugh and brought tears to my eyes – sometimes simultaneously. Garner’s character is initially blunt and unforgiving, but as she warms to Mark we come to identify with her struggle and begin to adore her cuteness. Rob Lowe is sardonic and villainous, which is when he is at his best. He has a dry sense of humor and a perfect delivery of insults. Numerous guest stars pop up, including Edward Norton (watch for him!), Jason Bateman and Christopher Guest.
In a way this film is more than your ordinary comedy. It is an experiment about the ugliness and attractiveness of truth. Truth is essentially a double-edged sword. On the one hand, honesty is the best policy, until Mark’s poor mother is dying and he wants to ensure that she passes on with a beautiful – though false in that world – picture of what her afterlife will consist of. It’s a study of what society would really look like if no one could lie. In most cases a lot of people are devastatingly miserable. In one scene, Mark walks through his mothers’ nursing home and whispers little lies in the ears of the other patients, causing them all to smile again. Doing good by lying? Yes, such a thing is possible.
The Invention of Lying is worth checking out, if only to assure yourself that your next date probably won’t be as horrible as Mark and Anna’s.
Email me at clarissa @ tvovermind.com
