The Invention of Lying (2009)

  I'm surprised that in a movie with so many comedians, The Invention of Lying isn't very funny.  It mostly squanders a decent premise by being an overt attack on religion.  I think poking fun at religion is fine, all of them have elements that are ripe for satire, but I don't think it should be mean-spirited or go so far as to say that all religions are for gullible suckers.

Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais) lives in a world where no one lies.  The entire concept is unfathomable.  It's also a world where basic courtesy doesn't exist and people blurt out every thought in their heads, no matter how rude or inappropriate.  After being fired from his job, Mark makes a singular discovery:  he has the ability to tell people things that are not true. He uses this gift to try and improve the lives of the people around him, and also to win the heart of his dream girl, Anna (Jennifer Garner).  By lying, Mark is able to transform the world, because they have also never heard of logic.  Things snowball out of his control, however, when he tries to ease his mother's (Fionnula Flanagan) passage into death by telling her that there is a man in the sky who will take care of her forever.  Now an unlikely prophet, Mark has to balance all the lies he has told in order to keep Anna from marrying his rival (Rob Lowe).

I was really hoping that this would be a good movie, but it's not nearly funny enough to justify being called a comedy, or serious enough to be considered a drama.  It mostly just falls through the cracks.  Life is too short, with or without an afterlife, to waste on middling quality movies like this.  Skip it.