God is a major factor in two new movies released Fri., Oct. 2. Comedian Ricky Gervais’ The Invention of Lying and the Coen brothers’ A Serious Man ask serious questions about God’s existence. What do they conclude?
Gervais, who helped write and direct The Invention of Lying, concludes that God, religion and Christianity are three of the biggest lies that humanity ever invented.
New York Post movie critic Kyle Smith wasn’t laughing: “If you saw Ricky Gervais’s delightful, romantic comedy Ghost Town last year and were looking forward to his new comedy, The Invention of Lying, be warned. The movie is a full-on attack on religion in general and Christianity in particular. It might be the most blatantly, one-sidedly atheist movie ever released by a major studio, in this case Warner Bros.”
Entertainment Weekly magazine ran an article about the controversial film in its Oct. 2 issue (the article can’t be found anywhere on the ew.com Web site). The article says: “What you don’t know—thanks to a carefully crafted marketing campaign—is the movie’s actual subject: religion…’It’s not atheist propaganda,’ says (Gervais), who is, indeed, an atheist.”
A Serious Man is the 14th film from Joel and Ethan Coen, the movie-making brothers who brought us: O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona and the dark and violent Oscar-winning film, No Country for Old Men.
If you want to know more about the Coen brothers and their films, including A Simple Man, check out a new book by Chicago Sun-Times religion columnist Cathleen Falsani: The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers (Zondervan). Falsani says: “Beginning with Blood Simple, the story of a man who has grave doubts about his wife’s fidelity and what happens when he attempts to uncover the ‘truth,’ the Coens have boldly engaged serious existential questions with darkly intelligent humor.
The bulk of Falsani’s book consists of well-crafted summaries of the Coens’ films in which she illustrates their humor, seriousness and deep intelligence. She then follows with brief meditations on the spiritual themes the films raise.
