The Invention of Lying, 2009

Feb. 19, 2022 | THOMAS GLASTAL

The movie, The Invention of Lying, does a great job of showing the ethical issues Mark Bellison experiences as being the only person in the world who can lie. The movie starts out as more of a comedy, but later it turns into a drama because of Mark’s gift of lying. Throughout the movie, Mark is trying to use his gift for good, and has challenges on the way in doing so.

The movie starts off with a narrator mentioning in a comedic tone that humans have the inability to lie. He also mentions that the main protagonist, Mark Bellison, will be the first person to lie. This gives the viewers a bit of insight in the direction of the plot in the movie. Mark meets up with Anna to go on a date, and Anna tells Mark that he thinks he is ugly and kind of a loser. She is brutally honest, and this means that even if the person thinks something about a certain person, they will say it because they must tell the truth. This also shows that lying can have a positive impact, because some things that humans think should not be said out loud.

During their date, Anna keeps mentioning why she does not like Mark, and also is judgmental to everyone based on their occupation and physical appearance. She is looking for someone whose genetics could give her the children she always wanted, and Mark did not have those genetics. After the date, Anna is not too thrilled with Mark, but believes there is a little potential. The next day, Mark decides to go to work, and all his coworkers express their hatred for Mark and call him a bad screenwriter and a loser. His coworker, Shelly, specifically calls him incompetent. They also keep mentioning that he will most likely be fired from his job. Although these statements could be considered as true, they can come off as hurtful and rude. Humans should be treated with respect, no matter what people think of them.

During his day at work, Mark gets an email from Anna saying she does not want to be with him and gets fired from his job. He also does not have enough money to maintain his apartment and could become homeless. Mark’s life is turning for the worst, and it looks like his life has no hope left. However, as Mark enters the bank to withdraw his only $300 dollars, his brain suddenly rewires and he can do the thing that nobody in the world can do, lie. He instead lies to the female cashier and asks for $800 to pay off his apartment debt. She lends him the money and believes what he says because nobody can supposedly lie.

Mark experiments with this newfound ability to learn how to manage it. He was self-aware to not take advantage of his power in certain ways, like using a woman. But he still wanted to get loads of money to become rich. He went to a casino, and even though he lost, he was able to convince the workers that he had won the money. After these experiences, there is a time where Mark uses his gift for good. He helps his neighbor, Frank, overcome some of his depression by showing empathy and not avoiding the conversations he has with him. He let go of his judgment of Frank, and Mark’s compassion impacted Frank to have a better mindset.

Mark keeps exploring his abilities throughout the midpoint of the movie. He was able to get back together with Anna, get his job back and become rich and famous from it, and more. However, he gets to a point where his powers become controversial. After his heartfelt goodbye to his grandma, people believe Mark is special. This is because he told his grandma that the afterlife would be filled with positivity and would include her and her family living in a nice mansion for eternity. Because everyone believed him, they believed Mark knew information about the afterlife and was some vessel for a higher power.

This part of the movie is where ethical issues start to arise. Mark decides to share his knowledge about this higher power to the whole world to create hope for everyone. He describes that the world is controlled by a man in the sky, and that everyone who dies goes to a happy and peaceful place in the afterlife. However, when Mark talks about what the requirements are to enter the afterlife, questions arise from the citizens. This is because Mark says, “If you do bad things, you won’t get to go to this great place when you die.” People asked where they would go if they did bad things, what constitutes a bad thing, and so much more. This shows that the difference between what is good and what is bad is very tricky to understand, and the movie did a great job of highlighting that.

For the rest of the movie, Mark tries his hardest to get together with Anna. They hung out more because Anna likes Mark’s personality but still does not like Mark’s appearance. When they hang out, Mark tries to tell Anna to look beyond people’s appearances and focus more on the emotions and personalities of others. Mark’s words influenced Anna, and when she described Mark again, instead of saying he is fat with a snub nose, she says he is smart, kind, and the sweetest man he has ever met. At the end, instead of marrying a handsome man with good genetics, Anna decides to date Mark because of his personality. The movie should have gone into more depth about why people act the way they do, and some of the logic was a little off. Specifically, the movie was trying to make the viewers believe that everything people say is the truth, but there were moments where that was not necessarily the case when two radio men still did not believe Mark. However, the movie was fun and lighthearted and does a great job highlighting philosophical concepts.

The Invention of Lying also does a tremendous job portraying the ethical theory, Kantian theory. Kantian theory shows that people should act out of reason and good will. According to Kant, “It is impossible to imagine anything at all in the world, or even beyond it, that can be called good without qualification—except a good will” (Kant). Mark does this throughout the movie when he is granted his gift of being able to lie because he is rational and reasonable. However, in a way, it also does not apply to him because he is lying to an extent. Everyone else in the movie does not have represent this theory because their actions do not seem humane, genuine, or most importantly, good.

Everybody who tells the truth may have had positive traits, like intelligence, judgment, courage, etc., but they are not using any of them with good intentions because they are brutally honest and not acting out of good will. However, Mark’s ability to lie allows him have good will. Instead of not wanting to help his roommate, Frank, Mark helped him with his depression because Mark realized it was the right thing to do for his mental health. In addition, he helped his mother die peacefully after expressing that she would be safe and should not be afraid, even though he was not a hundred percent sure that she would. Even though Mark is “lying” with his words or even his feelings, his intentions to be good are pure to help the people around him.

This is the reason why there is conflict with this theory in Mark’s case. Even though his actions are moral and reasonable, especially compared to everyone else, he is still lying. This is a unique situation; therefore, it is tricky to articulate if he fully represents this theory. But people would assume he mostly represents the theory because of rationality and good will.

Furthermore, Mark also helped himself seek his own perfect happiness. He did everything to be together with Anna and worked hard to help Anna change her perspective into a more positive light. In doing so, Mark found happiness because this new Anna loved Mark’s personality and ignored her feelings about his appearance. Through reasoning and good will, Mark was able to have the life he wanted while helping other people in the process.

Additional Resources

Articles:

Kantian Ethics, It Makes Good Comedy. – Morality and Ethics in the Invention of Lying.” Coldpopcorn, 9 June 2011.