The Hoax

FLICK Set in 1971, the era of "Tricky Dick" Nixon, director Lasse Hallström and screenwriter William Wheeler effectively underscore the lies of the arrogant and the powerful in this recount of the media frenzy surrounding author Clifford Irving's fabricated autobiography of Howard Hughes. The costumes and hairstyles perfectly recreate the look of the period but everything within the film emphasizes falsehoods. A convincing Richard Gere looks as if he’s having a lot of fun playing the scheming, down-on-his-luck author. When Irving decides to dupe everyone into thinking he has the billionaire’s authority to tell his story, he has them in the palm of his hands and the money he receives from publishing house McGraw-Hill is almost secondary. Because Hughes is elusive and eccentric, Irving realizes he can create the most implausible stories and the masses will believe him. Irving sprinkles his fabrications with half-truths, as if to add a dash of realism, and verges on living in fantasyland. We see his conceit get in the way, as when it’s pointed out to him that he is the only one who refers to Hughes on a first name basis. It’s telling, in an early scene, when we see the image of Irving’s hidden face at a masquerade ball that he is comfortable with public cover-ups. Charades like this carry through to his home life. Irving lies about his cheating to his artist wife played by a German-accented Marcia Gay Harden. She eventually gets caught up in the fraud by calling herself Helga and flying to Switzerland to deposit a $1 million book-advance check. Even Hughes’ identity is covered up by the publishers at McGraw-Hill, who secretly refer to him as Octavio. Though some of the movie’s details may be fabricated, The Hoax is no scam, and Gere delivers the goods. My Score: 8.5 out of 10.