Wings For Wheels

I don’t think there have been too many romantic comedies set in alternative universes, and if there are, there haven’t been many good ones. Groundhog Day is the first one that comes to mind, and Defending Your Life, which takes place in the afterlife of Judgment City, could also qualify. That’s probably because coming up with yet another scenario in which Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey can implausibly meet, hate each other, then fall in love is tough enough without having to redefine the very fabric of the universe.

Thankfully, there is Ricky Gervais, who co-wrote, co-directed and starred in The Invention Of Lying. From the beginning, and by the title, we are told that the film takes place in a modern-day world in which the concept of dishonesty has yet to reach humanity. As such, subtext and nuance also have yet to appear, and that’s the source of the bulk of the comedy. A commercial for Coke describes it as “brown-colored sugar water,” and an ad for Pepsi on a passing bus says, “For when you run out of Coke.”

Gervais plays Mark Bellison, a screenwriter for Lecture Films. Since fiction and acting are inherently dishonest, and therefore non-existent, Lecture Films produces studious, humorless readings on different events in history. Unfortunately, Bellison isn’t very good at his job and he gets fired, then evicted. While at the bank to close his account to pay for a moving truck, something in his brain tells him to ask for more money than he has in his account. He is given the money, and he struggles to understand his new power.

Those of us who loved Gervais’ work in The Office and Extras are used to seeing him be duplicitous for self-interest, so the scene where he and his best friend Greg (Louis C.K.) go to a casino and clean up will seem familiar, albeit with a lighter comedic touch. Unlike David Brent and Andy Milman, he doesn’t have to sell the lies; they’re accepted without question. He also gets his job back by going to his boss (Jeffrey Tambor, awesome as always) with a screenplay about nude aliens in the time of the Black Plague that he discovered in the desert.

But for the most part, he becomes a force for good. Herein lies the most interesting part of Gervais’ concept: with dishonesty comes the ability to be compassionate. He performs the same trick at the bank to give money to a homeless man. He brings a bickering young couple back together and talks his neighbor (Jonah Hill) out of killing himself simply by saying that things would get better.

Bellison realizes the change in him and attempts to re-connect with Anna McDoogles (Jennifer Garner), with whom he had an unsuccessful first date in the movie’s very funny opening scenes. He convinces her into giving him a second chance. But during the evening, he receives word that his mother is near death, and he rushes to her bedside. Distraught at seeing his mother scared at entering an “eternity of nothingness,” he comforts her by saying that she’s going someplace better: a mansion in the sky, where she’ll be re-united with her husband and everybody else she knew who has also died. Word of Bellison’s advanced knowledge spreads quickly and, in scenes that echo Monty Python’s Life Of Brian, he becomes, well, a messiah.

Yes, we laugh in recognition, especially at the idea of Gervais as a modern-day version of Jesus, but has a mainstream Hollywood movie ever been bold enough to come out and say that Christianity is a lie? I can’t think of one, and I wondered how it will be viewed in the Bible Belt. The movie succeeds because the alternate universe Gervais has created with co-writer/director Matthew Robinson is so fully realized.

Less successful is Mark’s pursuit of Anna. Although they become very good friends and she falls for him, she repeatedly refuses to commit due to his inferior genetics, and, even with the incorporation of the concept in his pursuit, the final act turns into a standard rom-com. If he were really a more evolved human being, he would’ve dumped the vain bitch and had the pick of the undoubtedly thousands of hot chicks dying to get a piece of him. At least that’s what I tell myself I would do. But messiah groupies aren’t even a part of the script, and Gervais blows his chance to be a cinematic studmuffin by continuing to pine for her.

Still, the film is more about its concept than the love story. The pacing is good, and there are plenty of sight gags and things going on in the background that will stand up to repeated DVD viewings. The supporting cast, which also includes Tina Fey, Rob Lowe and Philip Seymour Hoffman, is outstanding. And Gervais, in a role very different from anything he’s played before, displays a warmth that I didn’t know he had in him.

In other movie reviewing news, I also saw Big Fan this weekend, and my review of it can be found at Popdose.