Review of The Invention of Lying (2009) by Quiet_Spark87 — 23 Feb 2020

What starts as an interesting concept face plants in the second half as the writer opts instead to give a banal sermon about the origin of religion while utterly failing to understand the sociological purpose of it, for better or worse, in the first place.

Also, the logic of the premise was rife with contradictions and peculiarities. To start if the premise is that lying does not exist in this world and that people talk matter-of-factly why do characters seem to be compelled to voice every single thought that crosses their mind? Not voicing a thought is typically not thought of as "lying" unless one is under oath. Second, the problem with the protagonist's new found ability is blatant yet the writers clearly didn't realize it: in a world compelled to always recognize and tell the truth all his lies would simply make him appear to be insane. Like at the roulette table, where I assume he lied about the results of the wheel, wouldn't the guy at the table just look down and see the truth and that what the protagonist is saying simply isn't? Accepting such a lie involves lying to one's self about what one is seeing and yet the protagonist's ability to seemingly alter another's perception of reality is never acknowledged nor is it discussed.

Honestly, if the premise was expanded upon without the religion aspect the movie would have been great. As it exists it just feels like an Atheistic soapbox.