Ricky Gervais stars as Mark Bellison in an offbeat but flawed comedy in which people are incapable of speaking nothing but the truth. When Bellison finds out that he can lie, he discovers that he has the means to change the world.
The concept is brilliant (imagine a world in which there’s no fiction of any kind), but somehow the film never develops its full potential. It’s especially intriguing as a critique of religion: when Bellison is overheard fibbing to his dying, frightened mother that she’ll have a wonderful afterlife, he accidentally creates a whole new belief system. But the anticipated satire on religion – a topic Gervais has strong opinions on – never really arrives.
There’s also a confusion between honesty and unkindness. Just because people speak the truth doesn’t mean they have to be rude and unpleasant. Wouldn’t kind people speak kind truths? We never find out because most of the characters are so obnoxious. This issue is complicated by the “love interest”, played by Jennifer Garner, who grows fond of Bellison but won’t marry him because he’s “fat” with “a snub nose”. She’d rather be with the callous, shallow egotist played by Rob Lowe because he apparently has better genes. It’s difficult to see why Bellison likes her.
Cameos by Christopher Guest and Philip Seymour Hoffman seem thrown away.
There are some funny moments, and the central premise is a fascinating one, but it just feels like a missed opportunity.
The concept is brilliant (imagine a world in which there’s no fiction of any kind), but somehow the film never develops its full potential. It’s especially intriguing as a critique of religion: when Bellison is overheard fibbing to his dying, frightened mother that she’ll have a wonderful afterlife, he accidentally creates a whole new belief system. But the anticipated satire on religion – a topic Gervais has strong opinions on – never really arrives.
There’s also a confusion between honesty and unkindness. Just because people speak the truth doesn’t mean they have to be rude and unpleasant. Wouldn’t kind people speak kind truths? We never find out because most of the characters are so obnoxious. This issue is complicated by the “love interest”, played by Jennifer Garner, who grows fond of Bellison but won’t marry him because he’s “fat” with “a snub nose”. She’d rather be with the callous, shallow egotist played by Rob Lowe because he apparently has better genes. It’s difficult to see why Bellison likes her.
Cameos by Christopher Guest and Philip Seymour Hoffman seem thrown away.
There are some funny moments, and the central premise is a fascinating one, but it just feels like a missed opportunity.
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