A canny youngster gets the better of a sleazy Hollywood producer, striking a blow for oppressed screenwriters everywhere. Fourteen-year-old Greenbury, Mich.-native Jason Shepherd (Frankie Muniz, of TV's Malcolm in the Middle) is the big fat liar in question; his talent for twisting the truth till it screams is the envy of his peers and the despair of his loving parents (Christine Tucci, Michael Bryan French). Jason is hoisted on his own petard when he concocts a convoluted saga to explain why he hasn't done his creative writing homework and gets busted by stern Mrs. Caldwell (Sandra Oh). She gives him one last chance: If he completes the assignment and hands it in by 6 pm, she'll accept the work. Jason spins a fanciful tale called "Big Fat Liar," about a habitual prevaricator who grows with every lie he tells, but gets into a dust-up with a stretch limo on the way to deliver the composition. The limo's passenger, oily movie mogul Marty Wolf (Paul Giamatti), introduces himself as a "famous Hollywood producer" and reluctantly gives Jason a lift, but the harried youngster leaves his paper in the car and is condemned to repeat creative writing in summer school. Flash-forward to summer: Jason and his best friend, Kaylee (Amanda Bynes, of Nickelodeon's The Amanda Show), go to the movies and see a teaser trailer for a picture called "Big Fat Liar," produced by none other than Marty Wolf. Naturally, Jason's parents don't believe he wrote "Big Fat Liar," so he takes advantage of their weekend absence to sneak off to Los Angeles with Kaylee and confront Wolf. Wolf, who lives by the mantra, "The truth is overrated," flatly refuses to admit publicly that he stole "Big Fat Liar," forcing Jason to take desperate measures. A cheerful David and Goliath story that no doubt gave its writers great satisfaction to devise, this kid-oriented comedy serves up goofy gags in service of the unimpeachably high-minded message that lying is bad, even as it actually seems to be teaching that the end justifies the means, especially if the means are funny. Who wouldn't like to see the tables turned on a smarmy bully who, until he gets his richly deserved comeuppance, has lied, cheated and stolen with impunity? Fresh-faced leads Muniz and Bynes are charmers, Giamatti makes Wolf into a splendidly loathsome adversary, and the film is refreshingly free of bodily function jokes. --Maitland McDonagh
