the invention of lying

The Invention of Lying was a 2009 comedy set in an imagined world where mankind knows nothing about what it means to tell a lie. In the tale, an unsuccessful lecture-film writer, Mark Bellison, is the person who invents lying. He tells the first lie (about how much money he has in the bank) to a teller. Then he tells his frightened, dying mother the “ultimate” lie: “There is a heaven.” She dies happy, but the rest of the world is stunned by his lie. The movie ends with Mark happily married—with a son who has acquired his ability to lie.