The Invention of Lying
Director: Ricky Gervais/Matthew Robinson
British comic Ricky Gervais makes his feature writing/directing debut (with co-writer and co-director Matthew Robinson) of a comic fantasy that might be called Charlie Kaufman lite. It has the surrealism of a Kaufman picture, but few of the weighty thoughts.
The gag is an alternate world where people are simply incapable of telling a falsehood. Everyone has their sincerity switch set at brutal honesty, including Jennifer (Jennifer Garner), the cutie Mark is trying to woo.
Then one day Mark discovers that he actually can tell fibs, and that people will believe his wildest stories. Suddenly life takes a turn for the interesting.
The small marvel of The Invention of Lying is that it manages to sustain this joke for much of the movie, although it never really takes it very far.
