This film does a very interesting thought experiment for us, assuming what people's lives are like in a world where lies do not exist. This hypothesis is attractive to everyone. Compared with everything illusory, people are more willing to try to explore a completely idealized world, and it is also a thinking proposition that philosophers are eager to pursue.
It is not as easy as imagined to express this interesting idea that has come to light in a movie. Although the idea is good, how to use an equally wonderful content framework to support this thin idea is a real challenge to test the creative level of the screenwriters. . Fortunately, the film chose a comedy line, which made the film inherently more malleable and rich in many refreshing gimmicks. It is not difficult to find that the whole story is deliberately creating things that must be faced with lies in the real world from beginning to end. This is the case for almost every minute of the movie, which requires a strong plot line as a foundation. In those scenes we are accustomed to, when we naturally have to lie, the film expresses the true thoughts of the characters. The psychological contrast produced by this way of handling really makes the audience shine.
From the very beginning of the film, the life of the protagonist Mark has resonated with many people from the details. This is a typical, real, but artistically processed adult's difficult life. But the aura of the protagonist is destined to make this poor middle-aged man pretentious, and at the moment Mark discovered that he has the ability to lie, not only himself, but the audience was surprised by what just happened. I believe that Mark's mental state at this time is exactly the same as Yuri Orlov's state in "Lord of War" when he sold his gun for the first time - it feels the same as the first sex, nervous, excited, overwhelmed , but it ends soon. It is conceivable, in a world where lies do not exist, what a powerful psychological shock it is when a person discovers that he can lie, and that unscrupulous lies can bring him everything. Mark also understands that he can become unique in the world, even God, just by lying and effortlessly. However, as Mark preached to curious people in the film, the man in the sky controls everything in the world. Since there is a good side, there must be a bad side. God's left hand and right hand are always equal, and the film expresses this dialectical relationship intentionally or unintentionally.
The dialectics of faith in the film has a plot worth pondering. Out of kindness to his mother, Mark imagined a world after death for the whole world. In his description, the world after death is the paradise we expect in reality, and it is the most perfect world you can imagine. , full of love and abundance. As a result, people are no longer afraid of death from now on, and the cloud entangled in human hearts is immediately dispelled by the beautiful lies carefully woven by Mark. This is a good thing that spreads truth, goodness and beauty, but it is precisely in this matter that a philosophical paradox occurs: people's fear of death has always made people more kind to everything in front of them and cherish their own life more. Every day, people have always stayed away from death, but now, because the fear of death has been eliminated, people no longer avoid death, people treat their lives negatively, and what's more, there is an expectation of death, because life is so hard , but after death he has everything. In this way, a beautiful original intention has brought about a collapse of the human worldview. The picture of countless people who became Mark's followers did not want to make progress and set up camp in front of his house is really sad. This was originally a very deep proposition worth exploring, and the film could even shape the film into a serious film with more ideological connotations just based on a description similar to this paradox. But it seems that the screenwriter is not too interested in this idea, and even this plot is only one of the side plots of the film.
After all, Mark is only a mortal after all, an ordinary middle-aged man who only has the ability to lie. With his wisdom and ability, it is okay to make a fortune by lying, but it is not enough to serve as a god. It's understandable that the people's hearts are distracted. The film is positioned as a comedy, so it did not spend too much writing on this aspect, but arranged the main storyline more on Mark's emotional life, although this made the film's connotation stay at an ordinary level, and did not have the chance to be serious. Deep thinking and discussion, but we can also get some valuable truths from the ease.
In an idealized honest society, people cherish the harmony of the whole people brought about by honesty, and all the stability and peace of mind that anyone who integrates into this society enjoys is based on mutual trust. But if Mark appears in it, it must be the destroyer of this well-functioning integrity system. As long as there is a dishonest person, the trauma suffered by the whole society will have a domino effect, and the final bad result is unpredictable. . This is also the basic value that the Western developed world, which upholds integrity, has always conveyed to every citizen. Just like the financiers who caused the collapse of the Enron Building, although they did not directly put guns on the heads of millions of customers and force them to hand over cash, their fraudulent behavior of funds is in a sense, more than direct robbery. It was even worse. The credit crisis involving Enron Corporation had an impact on the United States, a society that values integrity the most, no less than the damage caused to the United States by the two collapsed World Trade Buildings.
Closer to home, a movie is a movie after all, and we all know that the idealized world envisaged by this movie doesn’t exist, and even if it did, it wouldn’t work in reality, because in the real world, lies are part of life. Human society can always find a perfect balance between the false and the real, and it will continue to run for millions of years in an optimal way, and it must have its rationality. Cherish what's in front of you, be honest with each other, and don't hurt those who love you, that's what the film really wants to tell us.
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