Ricky Gervais is a hero to me, his brand of savage, ironic humour a lifeline to someone who rarely finds funny what others do. So I watched The Invention of Lying (Gervais co-wrote, co-directed and starred) as soon as it came to Australia on DVD (its cinema season was an eyeblink). Alas, this is a travesty of a comedy. The basic premise – a world where no one can lie, except a retrenched, loveless loser (Gervais) who suddenly conceives of being untruthful – is a winner, but the script is execrable, without sense (the ending is especially lame) or tension. Gervais acquits himself well despite few lines or scenes of merit, but the rest of the actors struggle with the poor material. I chuckled at some of the nifty consequences of a world without fabrication, and Gervais manages some funny moments, and in truth I rather enjoyed the gentle sweep of the film, but none of that was enough.
Great idea, pity about the script. 1½ stars.