Can you imagine a world where everyone said exactly what it was they felt? The day you were looking particularly bad because you had no more clean clothes, a stranger thought you were homeless. The time you were walking around with broccoli between your teeth, someone told you. And the day you asked a friend, “Do I look bad in this picture?” they said yes and even elaborated why. The new film “The Invention of Lying” seeks to illustrate such a world.

The film follows Mark Bellison, a man who lives in an alternate world where everyone tells the absolute truth. However, he happens to be the first and only person who can tell a lie. The story follows his journey as he proceeds to use this information on people, like his boss, love interest and arch enemy.

Ricky Gervais, famous for his roles in the British hit television show “The Office” and the HBO series “Extras,” plays the lead character Mark. Gervais is disappointing not only as an actor but as a co-writer on this film, which is upsetting because as creator of “The Office,” he should have been able to write a funnier movie.

The true crime of this movie is that most attend the film expecting it to be comical. You would expect that with a cast of this magnitude with actors such as Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill and Tina Fey that there would be more funny scenes than the ones shown, but sadly that is not the case. Mostly it was just disappointing. Most of these characters were one–dimensional and their shticks were just not funny. It felt as if they were trying too hard to get a laugh.

The other major problem with this movie is that it takes on too much — there is a love story going on, as well as grief, personal crisis and inadvertent issues with religion. It encompasses a lot of subjects for a film that was marketed as a comedy.

Mark has a borderline pathetic life and is a character that is supposed to be comedic, but instead comes across as annoying and sad. His daily interactions with the other people in his life are supposed to exaggerate the greatness of the moment when he learns that he has the ability to lie, and to make the experience and person more rewarding, but really it encourages the viewer to wonder where his courage is to stand up for himself.

The love story with Anna, Garner’s character, while not expected, sets the bar for one of the funnier scenes in the movie. Ultimately, the premise for the film sounds interesting and funny but it fails in keeping that momentum such an idea brings.