Ricky Gervais is a master of the comedic reaction shot, which means he cast himself perfectly in this brilliant script about the only man in the world who knows how to lie. Even in the early stages of the movie, when the world is completely honest — and in this world, honesty seems to be compulsive, as if everyone had soberly lost the inhibition to speak their minds — Gervais has a wounded look of surprise, like all of this honesty is still a fresh blow to him even though it doesn’t faze anyone else. Similarly, the look of devious joy on his face when he conceives the first lie might be the funniest unspoken line that I’ve seen in years. The movie rolls a little off the path in the third act, after the inevitable segue into religious parody sets in and we need to wrap up the romance angle. Jennifer Garner, the love interest, is portrayed as a self-centered blue blood throughout the movie. Gervais is in love with her for her beauty — and it must be that alone, because she’s invariably cruel to him and others throughout the first two acts — yet the movie claims as a moral that beauty is irrelevant. Okay, then why is he in love with Garner above all other women? The “genetic mate” joke is pummeled until it gets stale and borders on psychotic. In a world of honesty, would eugenics really be the norm? Still, as romantic comedies go, this obstacle to the two lovers getting together is less dumb than most, and it serves the need of the brilliant conceit just fine, giving us a hero who’s an honest liar in a world full of deluded truth-tellers.
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