OK, let’s tackle the name issue first — there’s some question about whether this movie is actually called This Side of the Truth or The Invention of Lying. According to this video, as well as Ricky Gervais’ website, it’s called This Side of the Truth, but the trailer itself says The Invention of Lying, and that’s what IMDb is calling it, so that’s what we’re going with at the moment. Now on to the trailer!
The first 15 seconds of this trailer from Warner Bros. were enough to intrigue us. It looks like Ricky Gervais is picking up Jenifer Garner for a blind date. He asks how she is, and she looks at him and says, “A little frustrated at the moment, also equally depressed and pessimistic about our date tonight.” We were already on board.
It reminds us of Gervais’ Ghost Town , which we loved, even though no one else bothered to go see it. It’s obviously high concept. What would a world where no one lies be like? Apparently, awkward, but funny. Gervais plays the man who finally discovers that he can intentionally say untrue things to get what he wants and then, inevitably, begins using his powers for evil.
Well, OK, not evil. Basically the same things we lie about now, except he gets away with a lot more. We love the moment around 1:40 where he shouts to Stephanie March, “The world’s going to end unless we have sex right now!” Her answer? “Do we have time to get to a motel, or do we need to do it right here?” Awesome.
The cast is solid — it looks like Tina Fey and Rob Lowe both have significant parts, plus Louis C.K., Jonah Hill (though we couldn’t figure out what he said. Did anybody catch that?) and Martin Starr (that kid from Freaks and Geeks with the glasses) make appearances. We’re a little concerned about where exactly the story can go… it seems like there could only be 30 minutes max of “look what I can do by lying” humor before it would start to get really old, but then again, we’ve seen Ricky pull off some unlikely things (a show about a bunch of people who work for a paper company?), so we’ll try to be open minded.
Also, as a side note, we are tired of “Mr. Blue Sky.” There must be other songs out there, trailer makers. Go find them.
The Invention of Lying (or possibly, This Side of the Truth), opens September 25, 2009. Will you watch, or Ghost Town out again?