The Invention of Lying
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: October 2, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
10
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Time OutDavid Fear
Once the sharp, clever satire gives way to what feels like a special must-see-TV episode, the movie’s promise slowly deflates. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
Once it's high-concept plot kicks in, Gervais' hilariously self-deprecating persona is really all that keeps it grounded. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The romantic plot, involving his unrequited loved for Garner, is soured by her character's unconcealed shallowness: she won't have him because his genes aren't up to snuff. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
With The Invention of Lying, the British comic actor Ricky Gervais has come up with a wickedly funny idea for a movie - and then purged the wickedness right out of it. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
The result is an erratically funny but often frustrating comedy, with an interesting premise hobbled by internal inconsistencies and uneven writing. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
While the movie is a conceptual pip filled with quotable laughs and gentle pokes at religious faith at its most literal, it also looks so shoddy that you yearn for the camerawork, lighting and polish of his shows. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle Smith
Turns out to be a dour, shouty atheist manifesto. With a change of scenery it could have been called "Godless in Seattle." Read full review
50
SlateDana Stevens
Despite the ambitious scope of its premise, this confounding, disappointing and, in the end, depressing movie is content to devote 80 percent of its screen time to wondering who gets to kiss the girl. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
Ultimately it's the characters who are the joke -- too thin, too vacuous, too unlikable for us to care what happens in the next 30 minutes, much less for the rest of their lives. Too bad, really, because the truth is Gervais is a very funny guy. The ugly truth is that The Invention of Lying isn't -- funny, that is. Read full review
40
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
The last third of the movie is as bad as anything I’ve seen this year, with the laughs trailing off, and half of the supporting characters, the zestier ones, being airbrushed from the frame. (What director in his right mind would drop Tina Fey from the proceedings?) Read full review
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