A Place to Mediate the Man in the Sky

Friday night rolls around and I get a phone call. A friend is getting a group together to see a The Invention of Lying at 7:40 PM. My response, oh well I wanted to go to the movies but that movie was not on the top of my list. The friend proceeded to try an possibly find a movie that was closer to the top of my list, but we couldn't agree on anything so I finally decided to just go with it. When I had said that the Invention of Lying was not on the top of my list, I wasn't kidding. It held no real appeal to me, the trailer wasn't breathtaking and not even the premise rang of any real promise of an interesting story. Honestly I didn't really believe the foundation was going to be set up properly, a world without lying? Why was there no lying, brain functions? But then no one could really go against it, right? Not socially taught to lie? But even then it seemed unlikely that everyone would just accept that? Anyway you get the picture I had problems with the concept being believable enough to be entertaining.

So the movie started and here is how the premise worked - people just couldn't lie. It wasn't really explained, it was just a stated fact that was constantly proven by the characters dialogue with each other. The acting was enjoyably natural, maybe the actors of the film were genuinely amused that they got to speak hidden truths? When are you ever going to just flat out tell someone that they are not your genetic match, but you'll go on a date with them anyway because you're afraid of being alone? Or tell you're boss that you didn't feel like working because you thought they were getting fired? But overall the movie wasn't interesting, as I had predicted the premise was slightly far-fetched. The worse bit of it though was that the narrative moved slowly and almost without purpose for what seemed like hours! Not to ruin it for someone but its a movie about boy meets girl, boy wants girl he can't have. Everything that happens leads to that main plot line, the lying starts as a selfish action that is then turned into a tool for the pursuit.

The most interesting section of the movie was when the main character was discovered telling a lie. The thing is though that no one knows its a  lie, because in their world lying can not happen. So the rest of the world believes what he is saying is true, that he has access to new information. This is where the main character, Mark weaves a tell about the man in the sky. I'm not going to give more about that away, but know that there are enough religious parallels, echoing of mockery and social commentary that it almost makes up for the boring parts of the film. Almost.

The next best part was the acting. It was natural and genuinely enjoyable. Also there were several guest appearances that were completely unexpected. If you're bored on a friday night, or maybe a tuesday afternoon (for the matinee price) the acting is almost worth watching the film.