The Hoax, He said

For Lassie Hallstrom to take on the film "The Hoax", the allure had to be wrapped in the promise of a doing a period film. Hallstrom, who does these things very well, captures the mood and feel of the early 1970's so well that you could imagine you were watching Alfred Molina and Richard Gere made up to look older in a film that was actually shot in 1972.

The story is simple and the outcome is remembered by most of us that lived through it at the time. It's a time when Life magazine was one of the most powerful news and information outlets. It was the time when the post Nixon era was birthing itself behind the scenes as plans to burglarize the Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Hotel were formulating. It was a time when free love and drugs were more a part of the main stream culture than they had been, but liquor and cigarettes were still the drug of choice.

Clifford Irving, portrayed by Richard Gere, is a talented but struggling writer with many problems. His marriage is in danger because his wife discovered he was having an affair. His career is not going well because his last book was rejected and his previous book did not sell well.

In total desperation, he tells his editor that he has the exclusive rights to interview and write the biography of the reclusive industrialist and millionaire eccentric, Howard Hughes. He and his research assistant, played brilliantly by Alfred Molina, create the aura of authenticity that sways a sceptical but greedy editorial and publishing staff into giving Irving over a million dollars for the right to publish the book. Irving is counting on Hughes staying silent on the subterfuge because he has litigation problems with his TWA stockholders, A public appearance to refute Clifford's claim would be a disaster for the industrial wizard.


At this point in the story, we are led to believe, Irving has begun lying to his wife in a desperate attempt to save his marriage and that lying to his editors to save his career is the next step in inevitable journey to self destruction. However, my guess is that Irving was always cutting corners. He simply was to good a liar to be a recent practitioner.

The conflict is built around greed. First there is Irving's greed and need for money and success. But there is also the greed of the publishers in their suspension of disbelief in order to capitalize on the public's fascination with Howard Hughes.

Where this film get off track is when we see scenes that happen only in the mind of Clifford Irving. We are led to believe that the pressure of all of this deception has Irving imagining visits by CA types and involvement with Hughes operatives that eventually lead to his downfall. We are led to believe his exposure and eventual downfall is not because he has perpetrated and enormous fraud, hoax is to kind of a word, but because Howard Hughes is through using him in order to get back at ... . Well, I let you find that out if you bother to see this film.

Hallstrom, the director, got the sense of place he needed to portray this interesting side note to history. Gere and Molina's performances were spot on and wonderful to experience. But the script got very mushy toward the end. It was as if the truth of this story wasn't enough and had to be embellished, when in reality it didn't.