‘The Invention of Lying’ – Where’s Jim Carrey when you need him?

What’s Ricky Gervais doing in a Jim Carrey comedy?

The film’s trailer won’t tell you, but Gervais’s “The Invention of Lying” is a full on assault against religion.

Guess “Bruce Almighty” himself might have objected to such a project.

“Lying,” stuffed with star cameos and wild flurries against spirituality, starts out sprightly but never fully recovers once its true intentions reveal themselves.

You know, mocking the Man Upstairs and other such fairy tales.

“Lying” begins with Gervais explaining the new reality presented before us. No one in this alternate universe is capable of telling anything but the cold, hard truth.

That means everyone says what they really feel – even if it hurts people’s feelings.

That comic gimmick works gangbusters when a portly loser named Mark (Gervais) goes on a blind date with Anna (Jennifer Garner), a stunner way out of his league.

The date is priceless. Each can’t help saying what’s actually on his or her mind, leading to a series of cutting, cruel remarks. Funny stuff, but it hardly sets Anna up as an ideal romantic heroine.

One day, Mark’s synapses begin firing in a new, remarkable way. Suddenly, he’s able to tell a lie whenever he pleases. He uses his new gift to make himself rich and, later, to comfort a dying loved one by telling her there’s a place like Heaven waiting for her when she passes.

Voila, Mark is a new age prophet, the man who speaks for the Man in the Sky with all the wisdom the Creator possesses.

One element of “Lying” is crystal clear. Gervais, an athiest off screen, co-wrote “Lying” to eviscerate organized religion. And Christianity to be specific.

You didn’t think he’d tackle Islam or Buddhism, did you?

In case you aren’t 100 percent sure where Gervais is aiming, he pops up later in full beard and flowing locks like a portly Jesus Christ. As sight gags go, it’s not bad, but the heavy handedness of the moment blunts his occasionally sharp assaults.

Organized religion has been around forever, so surely it can withstand the onslaught of Gervais’ overhyped wit.

But other aspects of the film are more curious – and confusing.

The characters, particularly Anna, obsess over finding the right genetic match, and Mark simply won’t do with his pudgy frame and pushed-up nose.

Is Gervais mocking our shallow culture? That’s the kind of low-hanging fruit seemingly beneath him. Perhaps the film is mocking natural selection, but if so it’s savaging both religion and science, leaving … who knows what?

Garner nearly makes the love story in the film palatable. She’s lovely but doe eyed innocent, nailing every comic moment that comes her way.

She’s a rom-com stealth weapon, still waiting for the great vehicle to prove it to the masses – consider “13 Going on 30″ only a nice start toward that end.

Gervais remains an alienating on-screen premise. You almost wish he would go all in, or use his sly humor to make himself more conventionally appealing. When he straddles the line as he does here and with “Ghost Town,” it’s uncomfortable to behold.

Carrey’s gimmick comedies rarely give us food for thought, but “The Invention of Lying” can’t help but spark debate. Too bad the spark flickers out long before the pat romantic resolution.

(Photo: Jennifer Garner and Ricky Gervais star in Warner Bros. Pictures’, Radar Pictures’ and Media Rights Capital’s romantic comedy “The Invention of Lying,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo by Sam Urdank)

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