The Invention of Lying

The Invention of Lying was my latest Netflix movie. It stars Ricky Gervais, the quirky pudgy British actor, as Mark who is living in another dimension of our world where no one tells a lie. Everyone tells everyone the truth, not matter how much it hurts. People even volunteer information when it's not requested. This makes for some really funny scenes.

However, this all changes when Mark meets Anna McDoogles (Jennifer Garner). She tells him that she's not interested in him and she tells him exactly why. But suddenly he gets an idea to tell things that aren't true. Others cannot comprehend this new ability, but Mark decides to use it to his advantage.

Unfortunately, his ability to lie leaves him in a position where he uses untruths as a tool for compassion. His use of lies as a tool for compassion force him down a road that he was not ready to take, and now he must decide what is right and what is wrong.

The Invention of Lying also stars pretty boy Rob Lowe as Anna McDoogles' convenient love interest, Tina Fey as Shelley, Mark's assistant, in addition to cameos by Jason Bateman, Jonah Hill, Christopher Guest, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Directed by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson, The Invention of Lying is 99 minutes long and rated PG-13 for language, sexual situations, and a drug reference.

I thought the movie was fairly funny. The strength of the movie is that everyone tells the absolute truth and Mark can lie absolutely - and it's funny. However, near the end of the movie they get into an uncomfortable area where they start making fun of religion. That's not exactly where I want to see my comedy. For this I can only give The Invention of Lying 3 stars.

Synecdoche, New York

If you are a fan of artistic movies, then you're dumb and you're not going to like this blog entry.

I got Synecdoche, New York from Netflix recently. If you don't get it yet, it's a play on Schenectady, New York. Schenectady being an economically shrinking town in New York full of formerly employed New Yorkers who do not want to live in the state capital of Albany.

Synecdoche, on the other hand, is a part of speech, a term denoting a part of something that is used to refer to the whole. I think of the term Nazi, which when heard conjurs up impages of German soldiers in World War II and a general refrence to Germany as a whole. However, this is not entirely accurate as Nazi was a political party and I think you could argue that most people that lived in Germany were not Nazis, though most were conscripted into service and fought for their cause. Do you think that the Germans would talk about how the Democrats were bombing Berlin?

Back to the movie. Synecdoche, New York stars Philip Seymour-Hoffman, who I think is taking cues from Robert De Niro. Hoffman has starred in 7 movies in less than 2 1/2 years, including Charlie Wilson's War, The Savages, and Before the Devil Knows Your Dead. Also starring in the movie is Catherine Keener, also taking cues from RDN, with 9 movies since 2007, including What Just Happened, with RDN, The Soloist, and Into the Wild. Minor roles include Jennifer Jason Leigh, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, and Diane West.

The movie tracks the life of director Caden Cotard who is staging an autobiographic play of his life. He was won a grant that endows him unlimited resources to produce his play. However, the play never seems to get completed. Cotard ages, his child grows up to participate in unsavory activities, and his wife leaves him. Cotard becomes neurotic and a hypochondirac.

Meanwhile, the set for his play becomes larger and larger, eventually occupying a reall large warehouse that comes to include a miniature cut-out of New York City. He hires an actor to play him, who, in an attempt to recreate Cotard, hires an actor to play the actor who plays Cotard.

I get the humor in the movie. I'm sure this would have made a hysterical book. However, the movie is long and drawn out. It's sort of dark humor or tragic comedy. And, yes, spoiler alert, nearly everyone dies in the end, but don't we all die in the end?

Synecdoche, New York is rated R for language, sexual content and nudity, and confusing dialog. Fortunately, this movie cuts out right near the 2 hour mark and not the 40 year mark like the play.

I am not a huge fan of the artistic movies, nor of the dark comedies. I didn't care for Broken Roses. Didn't like Burn After Reading. I did understand the comedy, but I was just not a fan of it. I give this movie 2 stars.

Charlie Wilson's War

Actors are well known for their special skills in acting. However, sometimes these actors who are acting try to overact and think they can become someone else, accent and all. Think about Kevin Costner in Thirteen Days when he turned into someone from Bah-stin (Boston). The accent was horrible and very distracting. Unfortunately, we had a bit of this in Charlie Wilson's War. Not only were we subject to it with Tom Hanks, but also the ill-looking Julie Roberts.

Charlie Wilson's War is a new release (which I got from Netflix with no delays!!!) and it is a true story. Charlie Wilson was a Congressman from Texas who had a taste for booze, drugs, and naked women, though I challenge you to find a man who doesn't agree with the latter.

While waiting in his office for a meeting, a man asks the secretary why everyone working in the office is a young attractive woman. The secretary responds, "Congressman Wilson says that you can teach a girl to type, but you can't teach her how to grow a great pair of tits." My wife even thought that was pretty funny!

The premise of the movie is that Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) meets with Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), a rich, politically active socialite, kind of like Paris Hilton, but smart. She requests that Congressman Wilson increase covert funding to the Afghan rebels fighting against the Soviet invaders.

After a visit to Afghanistan and a meeting with CIA agent, the loud-foul-mouthed Gust Avrakotos, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, Wilson gets the funding he needs to buy the weapons that successfully help the Afghan's drive the Soviet's out of the country. Hoffman did an awesome job with this character. The dialog with Hoffman and Hanks is hilarious. It is contentious, condescending, and sarcastic, all at once.

The movie also stars Amy Adams (Enchanted), veteran actor Ned Beatty, and slew of hot young ladies that Wilson called his Charlie's Angels.

The movie is Rated R for potty-mouth, some nudity, though it's all in the first 4 minutes of the movie, violence, graphic imagery of children who had their arms blown off my bombs, and some sexual situations. It is only about an hour and a half long, which was good because I was pretty darn tired last night. I don't think I could have made it through 30 more minutes of a movie.

I gave this movie 3 stars. I found the historical aspect of the movie interesting. It was definitely funny to see Tom Hanks as a misogynistic jerk. Julie Roberts looks elderly and ill. Perhaps she is. I used to think she was nice looking. I guess starting next year I can admire her 17 year old niece Emma (who will be 18 on February 10th).

The fake southern accents were a bit annoying. Outside of PSH's character, I thought that the other characters were a little weak, though I thought the dialog was funny. I think this movie will be hit or miss with people.