According to Total Film’s latest print edition (via Playlist) the writer/director’s ambitions to begin shooting his 1950s era religious drama, “The Master,” starring Jeremy Renner and Phillip Seymour Hoffman this August, have fallen through.  And according to Renner, the project has been “postponed indefinitely at this point.”

“I was really bummed about that,” Renner revealed. “It really kind of stalled because when we were rehearsing — Phil, Paul and myself — we kept coming up against a wall that we couldn’t overcome. Or at least Paul couldn’t overcome.”

The script details the inception and rise of a new religion called The Cause — an obvious stand-in for Scientology — under the calculated direction of its charismatic leader — a proxy for L. Ron Hubbard — and his understudy, Freddie Sutton.  The roles would have been filled by Hoffman and Renner, respectively.

Some speculation fingers the Church of Scientology, with its strong Hollywood presence and history of underhanded tactics used to deal with its detractors, as a key player in the demise the project, though there is no evidence as of yet to suggest this is the case.  The more likely reason being that challenging, intellectual dramas tackling taboo subjects like religion are just generally less likely find financing in the current studio climate.

Considering not only the historical but day-to-day havoc inflicted upon relationships, business, government and civilization as a whole by lies, it’s only natural to long for a world in which the practice has been utterly banished — or never even conceived of in the first place.  Just imagine a staggeringly efficient society free of corruption.  No more political scandals, auto mechanic rip-offs, Wall Street bailouts and, according to Gervais, religion.

It sounds like the ecstatic utopia from which dreams are derived, and it is — at least for talented, good-looking, successful people.  But in such a world social decorum, which often calls for little white lies to preserve the dignity of others, does not exist.  Losers know exactly who they are, ugly people are openly and often made painfully aware of their appearance, and instead of living out their golden years in optimistically named places like Sunny Oaks Retirement Center, the elderly aren’t shown even a ray of mercy when their families drop them off at “A Sad, Lonely Place for Old People.”

The premise is compelling and inherently conflicted which makes for a rich examination of the nature of truth and deception and their respective functions in practical society.  That alone would make for an interesting 99 minutes at the cinema.  But Gervais does one better when he reveals midway through the narrative that the premise is merely a setup to deconstruct the entire religious establishment.  The very first lie ever told is one of desperation and comfort by Bellison to his dying grandmother about the, up to this point, non-existent afterlife.  A team of doctors and nurses happen to overhear Bellison’s grief-driven fib and want to know more about this magical happy place where people go when they die.

Almost the entire latter half of the film follows Bellison’s rise to fame as his attempts at explaining his lie breed infinitely more lies resulting in the birth of organized religion, complete with Moses-esque commandments scrawled across pizza box tablets and chapels built up to this mystical “Man in the Sky” responsible for every good and bad thing that happens in the world.

Gervais is fantastic as he shifts from comedy to drama and back.  And Garner is brilliant as his reluctant love interest.  Equally welcome turns come from a stellar supporting cast that includes Rob Lowe, Jason Bateman, Louis C.K., Jeffrey Tambor, Tina Fey, and John Hodgman.

Though irreverent and surely offensive to religious zealots, “The Invention of Lying” never loses its devilish sense of humor.  The real story here, however, is not that Gervais, an avowed atheist would dare to make such a movie, rather that such a bold and unapologetic anti-religion film, unthinkable for a mainstream Hollywood release, managed to get the greenlight from the image and profit-obsessed studio establishment.

But the wholly unique vision Gervais spends the larger portion of the film expertly crafting is all but deflated by the cop-out ending.  Instead of delivering the knockout blow, the filmmakers succumb to Hollywood conventions and utterly betray their premise in favor of cheap sentimentality.  It’s the inevitable compromise that likely made the film palatable enough to get the go-ahead in the first place, but also renders it powerless to provoke any real examination of its ideological conclusions.  At least it’s funny.

Score: 3.5/5