The First Little White Lie

Several of my friends have raved at how good the romantic comedy "The Invention of Lying" was so I went to see it alone last night. I was very upset at the first few minutes of the movie when the background was laid. It begins in an alternate reality, a town in which no one every lied. There is no fiction of any kind and no religion. The concept of not telling the truth had not even come up yet. Everyone spoke exactly what they were thinking and just blurted it out. It seemed like a really stupid and mean movie. But, I try to always finish a movie so my opinion is based on the whole picture.

Then it happened. Someone told a lie and all of a sudden the movie became worth watching, and funny, and sensitive, and the moral became clear and I loved it. I also love the star being an average guy not some hot, sexy hunk. Ricky Gervais is a funny, chubby, normal looking nice guy and he did a great job in the lead. Jennifer Garner has huge lips! Sorry, she looks great with her tall slender shape. Her character was on the shallow side looking for her perfect genetic match so they would have perfectly beautiful babies.

Rob Lowe with his beautiful blue eyes and perfect hair and physique was unusually cast as the gorgeous jerk. It is hard to hate him in anything, but in this role I had to. So he did gets a B+.

I started thinking how easy it is to lie, and people will believe you because they want to, even today. So maybe we should start telling little white lies to make people feel better about themselves and their situation, like Ricky did in the movie. Confusion sets in when we weave those tangled webs. It sounds good in theory, but I think honesty is still the best policy.

Trivia

Ricky Gervais wrote this witty little movie, directed and produced it and then narrated and starred in it. Hats off to you Ricky. Good job! I am forever one of his biggest fans.

There are many reviews out there that really bash this movie. Some say the story is seriously anti-christian, and I say it is comedy and has nothing to do with religion. If anything, it gives a positive suggestion of what life after death might be like. I recommend it as a fun romantic comedy.