Almost everything Ricky Gervais has touched over the years has turned to gold. The Office, Extras, Ghost Town, everything that Gervais has had a direct hand in has been successful and carries a great deal of intelligent humour. Until now.
This is made even more surprising given that the concept of the film is original and has the potential to ensue laughter around a cinema throughout the film. In a world where people can only tell the truth Mark Bellison (Gervais) suddenly discovers that he can lie and uses this now found gift to turn his loser life around to become rich, famous and try to receive the love of his childhood sweetheart Anna (Garner). Because of the nature of the plot there are some parts of the film that are inevitably funny for example the pathetic coca cola advert and through the first half an hour, this carries the comedy throughout the film.
However, it's when the script tries to get move on from the main concept that it starts to fall down. After "lying" to his dying mother about life after death, Bellison discovers that he has inadvertently created religion causing all the world to hang on his every world as he is the only one who can say what the "man in the sky" is saying. Yet this doesn't really develop and should be the main focus of the film but instead it deals with Bellison trying to capture the heart of his beloved Anna (made all the more difficult because he can't bring himself to lie to her.) Because of the undeveloped aspect of the religious side of the story, one wonders what it's actually doing there as it doesn't seem to have changed the world as much as it should have done.
Even though Gervais has potentially missed the main plot of the movie it still could have been salvaged. However due to the final parts of the film being repetitive and more predictable then Gordon Ramsey swearing in a restaurant the originality that brought the laughs earlier in the film dry up and the whole film remains undeveloped and empty. On the plus side the acting in the film is good with Gervais and Garner performing their lead roles well and there is also good back up from Louis C.K and Rob Lowe but they are doing the best they can with a poor script and ultimately this costs the film deer.
This had massive potential to be the best comedy of 2009 but missed opportunities and bad execution coupled with clichéd conclusions and dilemmas about romance means that Gervais' film falls way below expectations.
This is made even more surprising given that the concept of the film is original and has the potential to ensue laughter around a cinema throughout the film. In a world where people can only tell the truth Mark Bellison (Gervais) suddenly discovers that he can lie and uses this now found gift to turn his loser life around to become rich, famous and try to receive the love of his childhood sweetheart Anna (Garner). Because of the nature of the plot there are some parts of the film that are inevitably funny for example the pathetic coca cola advert and through the first half an hour, this carries the comedy throughout the film.
However, it's when the script tries to get move on from the main concept that it starts to fall down. After "lying" to his dying mother about life after death, Bellison discovers that he has inadvertently created religion causing all the world to hang on his every world as he is the only one who can say what the "man in the sky" is saying. Yet this doesn't really develop and should be the main focus of the film but instead it deals with Bellison trying to capture the heart of his beloved Anna (made all the more difficult because he can't bring himself to lie to her.) Because of the undeveloped aspect of the religious side of the story, one wonders what it's actually doing there as it doesn't seem to have changed the world as much as it should have done.
Even though Gervais has potentially missed the main plot of the movie it still could have been salvaged. However due to the final parts of the film being repetitive and more predictable then Gordon Ramsey swearing in a restaurant the originality that brought the laughs earlier in the film dry up and the whole film remains undeveloped and empty. On the plus side the acting in the film is good with Gervais and Garner performing their lead roles well and there is also good back up from Louis C.K and Rob Lowe but they are doing the best they can with a poor script and ultimately this costs the film deer.
This had massive potential to be the best comedy of 2009 but missed opportunities and bad execution coupled with clichéd conclusions and dilemmas about romance means that Gervais' film falls way below expectations.