Another movie review??? YAY! And you thought this year was going to be boring. In fact, I bet you’ve already forgotten that this is the year of opportunity.  Shall we begin, hmmm?

I stumbled across this while clicking through the endless shows offered up by netflix. I get overwhelmed with the choices there are so many. And then my arrow stopped on “The Invention of Lying” accidentally. You’re thinking “how does one accidentally stop on a selection in netflix?”

Quite easily actually. For some reason, my remote skips categories and selections just about every time I use it. When I hit the scroll down I end up two categories down instead of one. When I scroll choices it can skip 2-3 ahead. And wouldn’t you know it, this time it landed on the above.

Wanting to be a little more adventurous in the year of opportunity, I clicked on it thinking, why not? I was hooked once I saw it starred Jennifer Garner and Ricky Gervais. And the guest star and supporting actor list, amazing: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Rob Lowe, Jeffrey Tambor, Louis C.K., Edward Norton are among some of the notables.

Basic Premise: A world in which there is absolutely no word for “Lying”. No one lies. Everyone tells the truth no matter how harsh or sweet. In short there is no room for anything but the truth. While it does get over the top in some aspects such as: do they really need to have someone tell another person they’re ugly? Or fat? Or a loser? Not really. And yet they do. I believe it’s more to get the point across that no one ever lies. The concept just doesn’t exist in this hypothetical world.

The movie starts with the lead character “Mark” (Ricky) going on a date with Anna (Jennifer). When she answers the door looking flustered she tells him he’s early and she was masturbating. He responds by saying it makes him think of her vagina. She tells him he’s has a stub nose and is short and fat. And the dialog continues. Sometimes very clever and others it has that space filling effect.

There’s a wonderfully comic scene with Philip Seymour Hoffman as a bartender and Louis C.K. as his friend when “Mark” has first discovered his superpower. Just fun to watch!

I almost didn’t continue watching which would have been a shame as the ending was extremely meaningful and heartwarming. When Mark finally realizes he can do something no one else in the world can do (lie), he starts using this superpower for good and to get rich as well. The one person he never uses it on? Anna. Who he’s been in love with for a very long time from afar. Fast becoming friends, she snubs him because he’s short and fat and not good genetic material for offspring. And yet, Mark can’t get enough of her. He still has integrity though and wants her to love him for who he is, not his DNA, so he abstains from using his newfound power of Lying on her.

I loved this movie, especially the ending. Warmed my little heart through and through.