The first official "lie" (i.e. the amount in his bank account) is not the first lie Mark (Gervais) tells in the movie.
When he is on the first date, Jennifer Garner's mum rings and is pretty disparaging about him. He then asks JG how her mum is - she's says fine, to which he replies "great".
I doubt he was pleased enough to find out the fine condition of JG's mum after her ribbing of him, hence twas a lie, albeit a smallish one.
true I noticed that too
shareSurely Tina Fey had the first lie, when wishing him luck after admitting she loathed every minute of working with him.
shareit wouldn't be a lie to have hated working for him, but still wish him the best of luck
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RIGOLETTO: I'm denied that common human right, to weep.
But mainly people who hate other people always wanna see those guys fail..
....Maybe Tina is the exception to the rule.
To be fair though she never said she hated him. Just hated working for him, said he was bad at his job, apparently called him a "fat *beep* behind his back, and found pleasure in at least some of his misfortune. Admittedly, that last one at least seems to contradict a little bit with wishing him good luck, but people (even ones who can't lie, presumably) can be complicated and have multiple views, and she might have been amused by his misfortune when confronted by it directly but overall still not wish him any serious, long-term harm.
You could interpret it both ways, I suppose, and in that case I like to give movies the benefit of the doubt.
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My vote history: http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=13037287
Well, perhaps he still wanted her mother to be "fine" even though he didn't like her because if JG was distressed about her mother, it could interfere with the date. So I don't think that really qualifies as a lie.
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RIGOLETTO: I'm denied that common human right, to weep.
The line was delivered as sarcasm, and sarcasm by its very definition, is lying.
Man #1: "I think you're very clever"
Man #2: "Than- ... wait, are you being sarcastic?"
Man #1: "Yes I am, I actually think you're really dumb."
"..sarcasm by its very definition, is lying"
No it's not, sarcasm often takes the form of a lie, not always and definately not by definition!
The line did come across as being somewhat sarcastic but not necessarily a lie.
In response to the OP, it may have been a lie, though he didn't realise he could lie until the bank scene, I wouldn't say this was a flaw in the story.
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Just because you're
paranoid it doesn't
mean that they're
not watching.
Sarcasm is intended to ridicule someone, not to deceive them and if no one realizes that its sarcasm, its sort of pointless because the target would not know that they were being ridiculed.
However in some cases sarcasm would be deception. For example, if the speaker did not want the receiver of the message to get the joke, but did want someone else (a friend) to get the joke than that would be sarcasm and deception.
Yeah, it a fine line, but sarcasm is not technically deception unless someone does not know that they are being mocked. But you should keep in mind that this is a satire about our world that makes fun of our society, and its not intended to be an internally consistent world. The world without lies only exists in the film to mock this world.
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RIGOLETTO: I'm denied that common human right, to weep.
I don't think it was sarcastic, personally. It sounds a bit like he was forcing it out, but that could just be because he was hurt at the same time. He could still be 'happy' her mom was alright in that scenario.
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My vote history: http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=13037287
I don't think it's a lie. Obviously people can think of good things even about people they don't like. It happens even in the World I live (where people lie).
But also..
If you want to think of it as a lie, it's fairly possible that Gervais's character was able to lie (it was prooven later in the film) and just didn't notice it before the bank scene.
So anyway - whether it's a lie of not, it really doesn't change the film in any way.
He lies because he has the "lie" gene. Just like the evolution theory states, the fittest survives. Fittest meaning not the strongest, but the must capable to survive under conditions that others can't and, eventually, have a higher number of offspring.
Their child also have the gene - he inherited from Gervais character - and is able to tell lies. Many years from the movie timeline, the population will end up just like us. Also, Rob Lowe's character states that he has something different that he doesn't understand. That is the perception/ability of not being honest all the time.
The bank account lie is was triggers his perception that he can use his yet unknown power to take advantage of situations. It does not mean that it is his first lie.
Maybe the bank scene was jut the first lie he was consciously aware of? Sort of like a genius suddenly realising they can understand things their friends don't, even though they technically could and probably were doing that before hand.
shareThe first lie I noticed was when he drily said "Thanks" after the Rob Lowe character was first nasty and that he'd always hated him.
shareshe's says fine, to which he replies "great".
Tina Fey wishes him the best.
neither one of those are lies (or sarcasm).
I don't like Obama, but when he leaves, I wish him the best.
Many people are like this. We don't wish bad things on people, just because we disagree with them, or hate working for them.
The bank lie was simply where he was first aware of an alternative to the truth.
This signature has stupidity!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlgACO7ZBuw