"The Hoax" *** (out of ****)You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.
Abraham Lincoln
These were important words author Clifford Irving should have remembered before he started to created one of the biggest and most expensives hoaxes in the U.S publishing world."The Hoax" tells us the true story of Clifford Irving, a man who lead publishing company McGraw-Hill, he had inside access to billionaire Howard Hughes, who had granted him permission to write his autobiography. Of course, as the title may suggest, Irving had no such access.
The film opens up a lot of questions, how did Irving really plan on getting away with this? Why was McGraw-Hill so easy to convince? And why pick on Howard Hughes?
Richard Gere stars as Clifford Irving, giving a performance which may be one of his career best. The beauty of the film, directed by Lasse Hallstrom, is everything is played straight. The film doesn't go for a screwball comedy approach, taking us in the world of movies, where anything can happen. It tries to approach the material in a realistic matter. What kind of problems would one run up against trying to pull off such a hoax? While all the angles are not covered, enough of them are to make the film recommendable.
We learn early on Irving is a man with deep flaws and is prone to lying. Especially to his wife, Edith (Marcia Gay Harden) as he has an affair with Nina Van Pallandt (Julie Delpy). The film suggest Irving was a desperate man who was in fincial ruins and thought his autobiography on Hughes would save him in more ways than one. As a man, a husband and an author.
Gere was a very good choice for the lead, he has played a con-man or a flawed man on more than one occassion. Look at his part in "Chicago" or "Unfaithful". In one he was a fast-talking lawyer and in the other he kills a man out of jealousy. Not exactly role model material.
Going along with Irving is his best friend and researcher, Dick Suskind (Alfred Molina). At first Dick wants a bigger percentage of the take but once the heat comes on, he wants to back out. The film tries to suggest him as a moral compass in contrast to Irving but in the end both men are just different sides of the same coin. Both were lead by greed and the desire for power.
What did shock me about the film though was Lasse Hallstrom's involvement. Hallstrom usually directs dramas such as "The Cider House Rules", "The Shipping News" and "My Life As A Dog". He has dabbled in light comedy "Chocolat" and "Casanova" but "The Hoax" seemed like a bit of a stretch for him. Though he does live up to the task. The film moves along briskly. The performances are fine and the editing crisp. The film moves at a good pace.
"The Hoax" starts to become a bit trippy at the end as fantasy and reality are played around it. It is suggested while working on the book Irving felt a kinship with Hughes and started to, in some ways, become Hughes. The book takes on a larger significance. Irving had ideas of taking down then President Nixon. And so the viewer is placed in Irving's mind, starting to question everything and everyone.
But "The Hoax" is good fun. Gere and company all give fine performances and Hallstrom's touch is consistant. Well worth seeing if only for Gere.
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