Lying makes you inventive

Movie
German title	Lying makes you inventive
Original title	The Invention of Lying
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	2009
length	100 minutes
Age rating	FSK 6
Rod
Director	Ricky Gervais Matthew Robinson
script	Ricky Gervais Matthew Robinson
production	Ricky Gervais Dan Lin Lynda Fruit Oly Fruit
music	Tim Atack
camera	Tim Suhrstedt
cut	Chris Gill
occupation
Ricky Gervais : Mark Bellison Jennifer Garner : Anna McDoogles Jonah Hill : Frank Fawcett Louis CK : Greg Kleinschmidt Jeffrey Tambor : Anthony Fionnula Flanagan : Martha Bellison Rob Lowe : Brad Kessler Tina Fey : Shelley Bailey Christopher Guest : Nathan Goldfrappe Edward Norton : Policeman Jason Bateman : Doctor

Lügen makes inventive (Original title: The Invention of Lying ) is a film comedy and the directorial debut of the British comedian Ricky Gervais from 2009. The scenario of the film describes a parallel world , the main difference between which is that the idea of ​​lies and fiction is absolutely unknown.

action

Mark Bellison is an unattractive loser. He works as an unsuccessful scriptwriter in a production facility for historical documentaries, the only known form of entertainment film in his world.

He already knows through the ubiquitous honesty that he will lose his job. Shortly before that, his dream woman tells him on a date that she sees him as an unsuitable partner because of his genes. The next day, as expected, he loses his job, and immediately afterwards his landlord gives him notice because he cannot pay the rent. He goes to the bank to withdraw the last of his money for moving out. The bank employee asks him because of a computer failure about the amount of his credit balance, which - visually represented like a sudden spark in his brain - triggers the idea of ​​falsehood. He gives the bank employee the wrong amount, which he pays him despite information to the contrary from the suddenly functioning computer, since it could only be a computer error.

Starting from this first lie, Mark discovers the possibilities of lying and fiction and applies them to further situations, which leads to a chain of unintended developments.

production

Warner Brothers , Lyna Obst Produktion, Media Right Capital, Lin Picture and Radar Picture were involved in the production of the film .

criticism

The lexicon of international films writes that the film takes up an interesting topic with its “reflections on truth and lies”. In formal terms, however, he “hardly goes beyond the standards of the genre” and also uses “rather old-fashioned role models”. Maike Nagelschmitz at rtl.de is similarly negative. In her opinion, a "nice story" is not enough "to make the film a success". The annoying clichés and dialogues bothers. "The icing on the cake is that the comedy should obviously also have aspects of a religious satire" and "Although you can't deny the comedy a few charming moments, the 100 minutes stretch like chewing gum."

Daniel Licha from MovieMaze, on the other hand, finds many words of praise. He writes: "Even if the story runs out of air towards the end, Gervais created a ludicrous and, above all, innovative scenario that scores particularly well in terms of social criticism and thanks to its sympathetic characters has the viewer on its side at every second."

The Süddeutsche Zeitung highlights the problems that give the film the topic in a very practical way and writes:

“The cinema, which is often thoughtlessly called the art of beautiful appearances, is actually nothing without the lie. Or to put it another way: It can depict a thoroughly mendacious world very well and even reach the truth in rare moments. But if one day the truth would take absolute control, it would be done, dead, in the end. "

- Tobias Kniebe : sueddeutsche.de

Trivia

Well-known Hollywood stars have cameo appearances in the film . For example, Philip Seymour Hoffman as a bartender and Edward Norton as a policeman.

Web links

• The Invention of Lying in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Lying makes you inventive - Official German film website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ participating companies , on filmstarts.de, accessed on December 1, 2013.
2. ↑ Lying makes you inventive. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .  
3. ^ Film review, on rtl.de, accessed on December 1, 2013.
4. ↑ editorial evaluation, on moviemaze.de, accessed on December 1, 2013.
5. ^ The brains melt , on sueddeutsche.de, accessed on December 1, 2013.