The Invention of Lying 2009

A.O. Scott, At the Movies: It's bogged down in too many squishy romantic-comedy pieties. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: I think the first half hour would be almost impossible to sustain because it is so inspired. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: It would be such a joy to bend the truth and say that The Invention of Lying lives up to the potential of its inspired premise. Read more

Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: There's no doubting that this is one comic who can really act. But maybe Gervais should leave the directing to someone who knows how to tell funny stories on film, if such a talent can be found these days. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The movie is something rare, a boisterous American comedy with the power to trigger philosophical disputes -- even, if taken really seriously, fisticuffs. One can hope! Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Mr. Gervais's long-established gift for small-screen comedy goes terribly slack, leaving him likable, as always, but, on the big screen, looking lost. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Someday, Gervais will make a screen comedy both brilliant and consistent; in the meantime, The Invention of Lying will pass the time. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Lying remains sweetly pleasant but threatens to become as bland as the world in which it's set, and previously took such pleasure in exploring. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Lying is good, but it could have been great. And that's no lie. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: With The Invention of Lying, the British comic actor Ricky Gervais has come up with a wickedly funny idea for a movie -- and then purged the wickedness right out of it.- Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: [It] does have its moments -- most of them courtesy of Gervais and his very specific brand of self-deprecating, always equivocating comedy -- just not nearly enough of them. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The romantic plot, involving his unrequited loved for Garner, is soured by her character's unconcealed shallowness. Read more

Tom Charity, CNN.com: The movie never surpasses the gleeful hilarity of the first 25 minutes, when it allows us to imagine just how crushing and soulless this nakedly Darwinian universe would be. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The truth? Ricky Gervais' jolting philosophical comedy The Invention of Lying is seriously subversive. What other rom-com would spend so much time making a convincing case that belief in an afterlife is a harmless load of bollocks? Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: There are cycles of inspiration and rebirth, but the barbed promise of the early going loses its way in choices aimed at sentimentality rather than, as Harvey Kurtzman memorably put it, humor in a jugular vein. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: It also runs out of steam abruptly, as if there were nowhere else to go, but Gervais' wickedly sly concept lingers quite awhile after the final chuckle. And that's the truth. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Ultimately, the small-scale, often downbeat jokes in Lying never quite match the grand concept. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: The last third of the movie is as bad as anything I've seen this year, with the laughs trailing off, and half of the supporting characters, the zestier ones, being airbrushed from the frame. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The small-town Massachusetts settings are certainly fresh, and some of the involuntary confessions are fun. But, all in all, ita(TM)s not a great comedy. And thata(TM)s no lie. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: The movie is smart and silly. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Marketed as a romantic comedy, The Invention of Lying turns out to be a dour, shouty atheist manifesto. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: [A] droll, witty and thoughtful comedy about the thing that really makes the world go round. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The Invention of Lying feels a little too much like a wasted opportunity. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Gervais, who co-directed and co-wrote with Matthew Robinson, walks a delicate tightrope above hazardous chasms. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: It's no fun watching Gervais work out a tired fantasy of turning hot babes into chubby chasers. We want Gervais in all his merry, malicious glory. That's no lie. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: There's no hope that Gervais' performance in The Invention of Lying will open up new hope for a different kind of leading man -- and that's what makes his resoluteness so great. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The Invention of Lying, in addition to being very funny and inventive, is an attempt at a genuine statement about life, social discourse and morality. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Despite the ambitious scope of its premise, this confounding, disappointing and, in the end, depressing movie is content to devote 80 percent of its screen time to wondering who gets to kiss the girl. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Sublimely funny, slyly satirical and deliberately designed to upset Aunt Prissy, The Invention of Lying weaves quite a wicked web. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The Invention of Lying is an ambitious attempt to smash the wedding cake and eat it, too; but to say it succeeds would be stretching the truth. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: The result is an erratically funny but often frustrating comedy, with an interesting premise hobbled by internal inconsistencies and uneven writing. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: To tell the truth, The Invention of Lying is a funny movie that fails to deliver on its first-half potential. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Once the sharp, clever satire gives way to what feels like a special must-see-TV episode, the movie's promise slowly deflates. Does that seem unduly mean? Sometimes the truth hurts. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: That a great comic idea does not necessarily make for a great screen comedy is the lesson for first-time writer-director-star Ricky Gervais as he comes unstuck. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: By adhering to the romantic-comedy formula, The Invention of Lying stops short of being truly inventive. But enough sequences are fresh and inspired to make this a comedy honestly worth catching. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: While it never tops the explosive hilarity of its first 20 minutes, The Invention of Lying is a smartly written, nicely layered comedy. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: Lying brushes more big ideas than commonplace comedies, but hasn't taken those ideas through enough drafts to work out their implications or -- harder still -- make them killingly funny. Read more