Judy Wakefield
A Regency Ridge mansion has indeed made it to the big screen as it's featured in the movie "The Invention of Lying" now playing at local theaters.
I saw the movie on Monday night with three friends from Andover, and these reviewers were unanimous — the movie stinks.
It was fun to see our town on the big screen. But that's where the fun ends with this movie. We also agreed on that.
Hard to believe that Hollywood's several-day takeover last year of the upscale neighborhood located off South Main Street at the end of Alderbrook Road, resulted in just minimal screen time.
If you blinked, you missed the scene where actress Jennifer Garner drives a small sports car at the end of Regency Ridge and pulls into the mansion's gated driveway. Then, she goes to the front door and enters the luxurious home where actor Ricky Gervais awaits.
In another Andover scene, characters are hanging out around the home's backyard pool. And that's the end of Andover's screen time.
Gervais wrote this movie, which is about a guy (played by Gervais) living in a quaint town where nobody lies. He eventually goes to the dark side and fibs. He eventually lives in a mansion (the home in Andover). The adorable Garner is his love interest. But she doesn't lie, so she is brutally honest about his "snub nosed, overweight" appearance and how a relationship between them will never work. He's just not her idea of "genetic compatability." She is out of his league.
So Gervais' character sulks and walks around - a lot (how exciting) - thinking about her. Those dull scenes were filmed in Lowell. A Merrimack River bridge in Lowell also gets some screen time.
Gervais' character is a screenwriter and his office was filmed at the former Lucent building in North Andover, now called Osgood Landing. He works with characters played by Tina Fey and Rob Lowe.
With such a star-studded cast, I thought this movie with Andover ties would be more interesting, but it drags on and on. There was more excitement in real life when Fey and Lowe grabbed a sandwich at nearby Panera's while shooting their Osgood Landing scenes.
Gervais, the writer behind the British version of "The Office" television show, clearly has dry, British wit. But here, as we in America say, it's just not working for me.
We'll see if "Don McKay," starring Elisabeth Shue and Thomas Hayden Church, is any better. That was the other star-studded movie with scenes filmed in Andover last year, at Palmers Restaurant and Letourneau's Pharmacy. There's no release date or even a movie trailer out for that one yet.
It's great that the state's film bureau is attracting Hollywood to the East Coast by offering worthwhile tax breaks for movie productions. But ordinary life gets disrupted when Hollywood comes to towns like Andover. Is it too much to ask for a good movie in return?
