The Invention of Lying / To tell the truth, only the first third of the overrated, overstretched The Invention of Lying is above average.

Once, a few years ago, in a San Francisco bookstore, I stepped back to get a better view of a floor-to-ceiling shelf, and stepped, hard, on the foot of Imogene Coca, one of the best TV/stage comedians of the 20th century. “Excuse me, Miss Coca,” I blurted out to this tiny woman dressed impeccably in an Adolfo suit, “I usually don’t step on the feet of people I greatly admire.” I then, in quick order, listed 12 of her comedy routines that were my favorites. Charmed by this, the wounded multiple Emmy-winner agreed to discuss comedy with me over tea. At the end of our 45-minute conversation, Coca concluded: “Don’t forget that sense of humor is different for everyone. You can be sitting in a movie theater laughing almost uncontrollably and the person next to you can be stone-faced, not at all amused.”

Coca’s words came flooding back to me as I sat outside the metaplex theater on a wooden bench recently: I had just seen Ricky Gervais’ The Invention of Lying, and had seen the whole thing, stone-faced. I thought, in fact, it was one of the most awkward comedies since Gus van Sant’s Even Cowgirls Get the Blues–and the most disappointing since the Coen brothers’ The Ladykillers. What had happened?

What did I do? I went outside, bought another ticket, went inside and saw Invention again.

This time, it was a little different, but not that much. The first audience that day had been a small scattering of seemingly-exhausted blue-haired shoppers, who had chosen the movie probably because of its starting time: high noon. They tittered here and there, rattled their shopping bags, and exited the theater as soon as the final credits began. The second audience, some of whom probably knew who Ricky Gervais was (is), sat up during the first act (30 minutes or so), but grew less enthusiastic as the poorly-photographed, clunky movie unspooled to a stretched-thin l00 minutes. Did I laugh this time? Yes, at co-star Jennifer Garner, when she talked about masturbating just before her (unlikely) date with Gervais.

Here’s the deal: the basic conceit of the movie (co-written and amateurishly directed by Gervais) is that we are in a world in which no one ever lies. This produces the movie’s best laughs, which I won’t spoil.

The cameos, pointless and non-funny, are by none other than Jason Bateman, Christopher Guest, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton and Tina Fey (who should sue: her close-up is atrocious). Gervais, who doesn’t know where to place his camera, does close-up after close-up, and simply cannot stage scenes with more than three people in them. The star has bitten off more than he can chew, and has made an ugly-looking film with framing out of ’50s television.

However, let’s remember the words of Coca: There will be those who like this thing. Proceed with caution.

After all, show-biz is convinced that the Brit wit is “genius,” the most overused word in the industry. What I say is this: Wait for the DVD, and then drink heavily when you watch this near-disaster.

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