Ricky Gervais isn't leading-man material, and he knows it. In "The Invention of Lying," which he co-wrote and co-directed (with Matthew Robinson), he plays Mark Bellison, a polite, pudgy, low-level screenwriter who lives in an alternate world that, he explains, "has never evolved the ability to tell a lie." That means when Mark shows up for a first date with a woman whom he's long had a crush on, Anna McDoogles (Jennifer Garner), she gives him the once-over at the door and doesn't bother to hide her disappointment. They exchange some chit-chat in which she pointedly avoids being evasive, and when it's time for the two of them to head out, she announces brightly, "I don't find you attractive. Shall we?"
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