Hi, this is Dana Stevens, Slate's movie critic, and I'm here with the Slate Spoiler Special

podcast on The Invention of Lying, the new movie written, produced, directed by, or at least

co-written, co-directed, produced, and starring the British comic, Ricky Jervais.

I'm here with Dan Kois from D.C. Hi, Dan.

Hey, Dana.

Who is a critic for the Washington Post and also a contributor to the New York Magazine Vulture blog.

And so, Dan, before we get started, I should mention that, as always, we recommend that you watch the movie before listening to this podcast if you don't want it to be spoiled.

Because if it's not obvious from the title, we're going to be doing some serious plot revelation.

Okay, shall we begin?

Let's do it. I think you share my fandom for Ricky Jervais.

I mean, many millions share that.

And also my disappointment at his so far forays into Hollywood movies.

And so I'm curious to hear what you thought about this one.

I found this one fairly disappointing, even as I appreciated that it was made, if that makes sense.

I don't view it, I think, as much of a betrayal of the Ricky Gervais persona as you might have,

but I do feel like as a movie, it was about a quarter of the movie that it could have been,

had Ricky Gervase's comic sensibility

been unleashed upon it in full.

Yeah, I found it absolutely confounding and saddening, and yet it's not a movie that, you know,

I hate, I guess I'm glad it exists in that it's got a few pretty good jokes in it, but

let's go into a quick story summary and feel free to stop and make your observations during the plot summary. But you're going to do

my scut work as always. The plot summary is Ricky Jervais is a man living in an alternate universe

...