( CNN ) -- The Academy-Award winning British producer and ( briefly ) Columbia Pictures head David Puttnam used to have a placard on the wall of his office . It read : `` Hello , he lied . '' In `` The Invention of Lying , '' Ricky Gervais plays a `` loser '' in a society that tells only the truth . Lies are second nature in Hollywood , or maybe even first nature , so it 's not surprising that the breathtakingly simple but bewilderingly original idea underpinning the new movie from `` The Office '' creator Ricky Gervais came from an industry neophyte , Gervais 's co-writer and co-director , Matthew Robinson . The idea ? In a world in which everyone always speaks the truth -- in which no one has ever so much as considered deceit , flattery , hyperbole , hiring an illegal maid or under-declaring their taxable returns -- what status , fame and fortune would fall to the first man to realize the power of fabrication ? Appropriately , Gervais ' character , Mark Bellison , works in the film biz as a screenwriter . But this being a society in which fiction has yet to be invented , his job consists of penning historical lectures that will then be read aloud to the moviegoing public by the on-screen narrator . Mark has drawn the short straw with the 14th century ( no one wants to hear about the Black Death ) , and he 's about to be fired , as his secretary ( Tina Fey ) is eager to tell him . She 's never liked him anyway ; she tells him that , too . An honest world can be a brutal place for a short , fat loser , which is all that Mark is . After all , everybody says so . The movie never surpasses the gleeful hilarity of the first 25 minutes , when it allows us to imagine just how crushing and soulless this nakedly Darwinian universe would be . The high point comes early , with Mark 's dispiriting blind date with the beautiful Anna ( Jennifer Garner ) , who is scrupulously frank about her first impressions and his long-term prospects , which are nil . She 's searching for a fiscally well-endowed , genetically attractive mate , and Mark ai n't him . Watch Gervais explain why Garner came cheap » . Gervais has made similar , self-deprecating remarks about the chances of a chubby Brit like him making it in Hollywood -- a line he repeated at the Emmys recently -- though it must be said , so far , Hollywood seems to be welcoming him with open arms . `` The Invention of Lying '' is loaded with celebrity cameos from the likes of Philip Seymour Hoffman , Edward Norton and Christopher Guest . Gervais should relax : Clowns do n't have to be Cary Grant . Funny-looking is fine for a funny man . Meanwhile Mark 's obsession with the unfairness of it all smacks of self-pity . It does n't seem to have occurred to the filmmakers that his attraction to Anna is based entirely on her looks . Garner 's role cries out for grace notes -- a kind word , a quip , an insight , some flash of warmth -- Garner can only hint at . Provocatively , the big lie that changes everything is the promise of an afterlife Mark gives to his mother on her deathbed . The word soon gets out , and Mark is forced to spell out the tenets of the world 's first religion , as dictated to him by `` the man in the sky . '' Or so he says , and who should doubt it ? You have to admire the audacity of such sacrilegious mischief-making , but truth be told , the movie loses its way the longer Gervais spins out this anti-parable . His false prophet acquires fame and fortune but still struggles to convince the girl that he 's a better bet than Rob Lowe in the genes department . The ending 's uncertain mixture of cynicism and sentimentality does n't feel entirely plausible , and between them , Gervais and Robinson ca n't smooth over the story 's bumpy patches . At times , the energy just seeps out of the film . But that does n't mean `` The Invention of Lying '' is n't the funniest movie around right now . At its best , it 's inspired . It 's just that Ricky Gervais still has a ways to go before his filmmaking reaches the sustained pitch of his TV work . It should be fun seeing him figure it out . `` The Invention of Lying '' is rated PG-13 and runs 100 minutes . For Entertainment Weekly 's review , click here .
` ` The Invention of Lying '' has lots of # ##ness , says Tom Charity . Movie is about man who learns to lie in fortune - telling society . Film is flat at first , but star Ricky Gervais helps carry it over weak spots .