Metacritic Movie Ratings
The Invention of Lying Reviews

A sample of reviews from critics across the country.

• 88

  out of 100

  Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert

  In its amiable, quiet, PG-13 way, The Invention of Lying is a remarkably radical comedy.

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• 83

  out of 100

  Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum

  The performances are razor sharp. And the ideas in this movie are, no kidding, big.

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• 80

  out of 100

  The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen

  Gervais and Robinson take what might have been a cute concept comedy and elevate it to delicious heights.

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• 75

  out of 100

  USA TodayClaudia Puig

  By adhering to the romantic-comedy formula, The Invention of Lying stops short of being truly inventive. But enough sequences are fresh and inspired to make this a comedy honestly worth catching.

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• 70

  out of 100

  VarietyJustin Chang

  While it never tops the explosive hilarity of its first 20 minutes, The Invention of Lying is a smartly written, nicely layered comedy that, like last year's underappreciated "Ghost Town," casts Ricky Gervais as a mild-mannered schlub who manages, in spite of himself, to make the world a better place.

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• 50

  out of 100

  The New York TimesManohla Dargis

  While the movie is a conceptual pip filled with quotable laughs and gentle pokes at religious faith at its most literal, it also looks so shoddy that you yearn for the camerawork, lighting and polish of his shows.

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• 40

  out of 100

  Los Angeles Times

  Ultimately it's the characters who are the joke -- too thin, too vacuous, too unlikable for us to care what happens in the next 30 minutes, much less for the rest of their lives.Too bad, really, because the truth is Gervais is a very funny guy. The ugly truth is that The Invention of Lying isn't -- funny, that is.

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