The Hoax is a 2006 American drama film directed by Lasse Hallström. The screenplay by William Wheeler is based on the book of the same title by Clifford Irving and focuses on the autobiography Irving supposedly helped Howard Hughes write. Many of the events Irving described in his book were changed or completely eliminated from the film, and the author later said, "I was hired by the producers as technical adviser to the movie, but after reading the final script I asked that my name be removed from the movie credits." [1]
Plot
Although Fake!, his previous work about art forger Elmyr de Hory, sold poorly, executives at McGraw-Hill express interest in Clifford Irving's new effort, and he believes he has his breakout work at last, only to be told the publishing house has decided against releasing the book after a Look editor deems it unsatisfactory.
Vacationing with his friend and researcher Richard Suskind, Irving is ejected from his hotel at 1:00am when Howard Hughes arrives and demands the entire building be vacated. Returning to New York City to meet with his publishers, he is upset to find that he has been fobbed off onto one of the assistants. He storms into the board room and announces that his new project will be the "book of the century," and threatens to take it elsewhere if McGraw-Hill is not interested. He then struggles to come up with a suitable topic for his grandiose claim, rejecting numerous suggestions from Suskind. After catching sight of a magazine cover picturing Hughes, he decides to make him the subject of his book.
Irving approaches McGraw-Hill and claims he has been summoned by Hughes to help him write his autobiography and provides forged handwritten notes from Hughes as proof. When handwriting experts wrongly conclude the notes are genuine, the publishers strike a $500,000 deal for the book.
Because Hughes is so reclusive and notoriously wary of legal action, he is unlikely to sue Irving, and his eccentricities also mean any denials of the book's authenticity likely will be treated as misdirection. Irving is convinced his hoax is the perfect crime.
Irving is undergoing marital problems with his artist wife Edith. His affair with actress/singer Nina Van Pallandt left Edith hurt and skeptical about her husband's ability to remain monogamous. Irving assures her he will remain faithful, and leaves to begin researching the book with Suskind. In order to create an authenticity that will fool even the experts, the two men devote hours to studying documents pertaining to Hughes. They illicitly obtain a copy of a draft biography of Noah Dietrich, a retired Hughes aide, which provides details that add to the apparent authenticity of the work. Irving begins reciting passages for the book into a tape recorder in character as Hughes, going so far as to dress as Hughes and draw a Hughes-like mustache on himself during these sessions.
As the book progresses, a box containing explosive information about questionable dealings between Hughes and Richard Nixon is delivered to Irving. He assumes the package is from Hughes and convinces himself Hughes wants the damaging material included in the book, a sign he supports the autobiography.
As the publication date draws near, Irving steps up his pretense, including staging an aborted meeting between Hughes and the publishers. Denials that Hughes is involved in any way with the book are issued from his headquarters, but the McGraw-Hill executives are convinced it is a genuine work. Irving uses their increasing desire for the guaranteed bestseller to leverage larger payments for himself and Hughes, and he and Edith concoct a scheme for her to deposit Hughes' check, payable to H.R. Hughes, into a Swiss bank account using a forged passport with the name Helga R. Hughes.
Irving begins to become paranoid and experiences alcohol-fueled fantasies about being kidnapped by Hughes' people. His affair with Van Pallandt has continued, and the pressure of keeping up a pretense of fidelity with his wife adds to his stress.
Hughes finally goes public via a televised conference call and denies any knowledge of Irving or the book. Irving ultimately is arrested and agrees to cooperate if Edith is granted immunity. At a press conference, a government spokesman announces Irving, Edith, and Suskind have received short jail sentences. An overheard radio report details a sudden wave of legal decisions in favor of Hughes in a short period of time, ambiguously implying that Irving's book had indeed been used as a tool by Hughes to pressure Nixon. A fleeting scene from inside the Nixon White House shows that Nixon's preoccupation with Hughes led directly to the burglary and wiretapping of Democratic Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel, a historically disputed point but not a new one.
Cast
- Richard Gere - Clifford Irving
- Alfred Molina - Richard Suskind
- Marcia Gay Harden - Edith Irving
- Hope Davis - Andrea Tate
- Julie Delpy - Nina Van Pallandt
- Stanley Tucci - Shelton Fisher
- Eli Wallach - Noah Dietrich
Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an 86% positive rate, based on 139 reviews, [2] while on Metacritic, the film scored 70 out of 100, based on 37 reviews. [3]
A.O. Scott of the New York Times said the film was "for the most part a jumpy, suspenseful caper, full of narrow escapes, improbable reversals and complicated intrigue. But it has a sinister, shadowy undertow, an intimation of dread that lingers after Irving’s game is up." [4]
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called the film "an unexpectedly satisfying fantasia of reality and imagination, a meditation on the nature of lies and deception, on how we come to embrace not the truth but what it suits us to believe . . . sharply written . . . and gracefully directed." [5]
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone rated the film 3½ out of four stars and called it a "devilish and devastating satire." He added, "Gere gives 'em the old razzle-dazzle with his roguish charm and sharp comic timing. The surprise is the unexpected feeling he brings to this challenging role." [6]
Deborah Young of Variety called the film a "breezy, fast-paced, somewhat loose-ended account [that] offers a surprisingly layered vehicle for a maniacally conniving Richard Gere, backed up by a superb Alfred Molina as his accomplice." [7]
Box office
The Hoax was given a limited opening in 235 theaters in the United States and Canada on April 6, 2007 and earning $1,449,320 on its opening weekend. It eventually grossed $7,164,995 in the US and Canada and $4,607,188 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $11,772,183. [8]
Awards and nominations
The London Film Critics Circle nominated Alfred Molina for British Supporting Actor of the Year, and Richard Gere was nominated for the Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
Accuracy
While the major events portrayed in the film actually occurred, the film takes several dramatic liberties and completely eliminates all scenes set in Ibiza, where Irving wrote much of his book in a farmhouse he owned there. The author described the film as "a historically cockeyed story" and decried the film's characterizations as inaccurate. He was unhappy with being portrayed as "desperate and humorless, a washed-up hack writer who lives in a conservative New York suburb." He observed, "The movie misses the point that the Howard Hughes hoax was a live-action adventure story concocted by two middle-aged hippie expat writers and a Swiss heiress. Edith, my then-wife, a woman of great zest, is portrayed as a dull hausfrau; and Nina van Pallandt, my Danish mistress, as barely one level above a New York hotel hooker. Dick Suskind, witty friend and co-conspirator, is offered to the public as a self-righteous, sweaty buffoon. The scenes that deal with Movie Clifford feuding with Movie Dick, getting him drunk and hiring a bargirl to seduce him, are totally fictional. The Hughes people mailing the package of files to me is also made up." [9]
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This is finally the movie that Richard Gere was born to star in
I was interested in this film because I'm a big fan of Orson Welles' "F
funkyfry from Oakland CA - 9 March 2009For Fake". Those who enjoy "The Hoax" and haven't seen Welles' film
should seek it out for a truly great treat, because then you'll be able
to compare Gere's performance as Clifford Irving with the real Clifford
Irving, or at least as close to the real Irving as any camera can
capture. I have to say that I usually detest Richard Gere, and he can
be a horrible actor even with a good director. It seems like he usually
holds something back and tries really hard to make all his characters
"charming" in a kind of generic way. But Richard Gere was born to play
Clifford Irving, with his ratlike face and devil's smile. All the fake
charm that Gere has spent an entire career projecting sits on Irving's
shoulders quite comfortably.This film only briefly touches on the subject of Irving's biography of
Elmyr D'Hory, and is mainly about his great hoax to convince the world
that he had written Howard Hughes' autobiography along with the
famously reclusive billionaire. Along with his researcher Dick Suskind
(Alfred Molina), Gere trots from Mexico to Vegas in pursuit of
information that will make his book stand up, and in a grand moment of
self-delusional folly believes that Hughes himself will not be bothered
to refute the book. Ultimately he uncovers information that he believes
will be damaging to the Nixon administration, and becomes convinced
that "Howard is with us!" and that Hughes wants to see the book
published. But does Hughes really want Irving to succeed, or is he
simply using him as a pawn in his game? Gere could only give such a
great performance in the role of an actor. But I can't imagine the
movie with anybody else, and if he does nothing else worthwhile in his
career then I would praise him just for this. It's a funny movie ("He
gave me a prune!"), with some interesting ideas about the art of
fakery, and it generally avoids the peril and cheap allure of making
Irving too sympathetic or heroic. We constantly see both Irving as he
sees himself — a man of destiny, the next Hemmingway — and Irving as
most others see him — a predatory con-man who abuses the trust placed
in him by even his closest friends and lovers. Director Lasse
Hallstrom, as he has for his whole career, does not allow stylistic
flourish to clutter up the film but instead focuses intently on the
characters. The resulting film is effective, but very odd — a very
understated movie about a very overstated human being.
Good movie but ultimately crap
When I first saw the movie I thought it was pretty good, so I looked it
countzero1942 from Canada - 6 February 2009up to see how true to the real story it was. It turns out there are a
lot of facts that are close enough, but the whole essence of the story
is completely wrong.In the movie, they turn the story into a morality tale where the main
character is cracking under the weight of lies he is telling to sell
the fake biography and how he is destroying his life, marriage and
friendship with lies.The reality is Irving was a con man with a sociopathic personality who
drew a sense of power from his lies and scams. A person of this nature
can usually con old ladies out of their retirement savings and make
jokes about it after wards. So he wouldn't have been fraught with guilt
and remorse and he wouldn't have been tormented by a non-existent
conscience. He would have been riding high along an intense
roller-coaster ride until the jig was up.I would have liked to have seen a movie about the real thing.Sure it would have been tougher to make it relevant to the average
person. But if you look at shows like The Sopranos and Dexter, which
have likable yet repulsive characters who are in a lot of ways
uncomfortably similar to the average person, it's certainly not
impossible. The reality is most people do in fact lie and scam a lot
more then they are willing to admit - even to themselves - and feel
powerful doing so. The movie could have done something with that.The people who did this movie opted for the easy way out and ultimately
manufactured a formula movie. They did a poor job but got credit for
the intriguing real-life story, which is obviously credit they didn't
deserve.I can see why Clifford Irving had his name removed from the credits.
Semi entertaining telling of one of the greatest scam of the 20th Century.
"The Hoax" is based on Clifford Irving's book of the same name. It is
LeroyBrown-2 from Northern California - 29 January 2009about Mr. Irving's attempt to ghost write and sell the biography of
eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes. At the time it cause a sensation,
to finally read the own words of one of the richest and most fiercely
private person in the world only to find out it was a gigantic fraud
played on the public, the media and the literary world. The movie
skillfully shows us a fanciful tale of rather unique individuals who
partake or are victims of one of the most daring fraudulent acts.The movie begins with Clifford Irving (Richard Gere) trying to sell his
latest book to his publisher, but his publisher is less than thrilled
with the product. Irving, whose literary star is dimming would
eventually come up with the idea of ghost writing the autobiography of
Howard Hughes. He recruits his wife (Marcia Gay Harden) and his best
friend (Alfred Molina) on his wild plan. Although there is some
resistance for the plan, mostly from the best friend, they soon are on
their way. We see how they used questionable tactics to get information
that would at least give the book an air of authenticity. Mostly what
we see is Irving pulling a great con job on his publisher as well as
seeing Irving losing himself in his subject. The movie is well crafted and there is high quality in the production.
Director Lasse Halstrom did himself proud. He moved the story along at
a good pace never plodding along. His camera movement is certainly
crisp and precise, I love how when Gere is driving we see how the
camera follows the car from an overhead shot. Mr. Hallstrom certainly
know how and when to use zoom in shots and tight close up. Truly a man
who knows his way with the camera. The sets and the production values
of the whole movie are excellent, from the look of a big conference
room to that of narrow hallways. Everything seems to have been thought
out well.The acting is generally good. My main complaint is a big one, Richard
Gere in the lead. I have to admit I have never been a big Richard Gere
fan, I always felt that sometimes he was holding back in his
performances. Here he gives one of his better performances but it's
still lacking. He played Irving as a con man less as a writer. A guy
who's more interested in pulling off the scam than one who's actually
writing a book. I suppose that's how it was planned to begin with but I
can't help wonder how a better actor would have done in the role.The screenplay for the most part is well thought out. It made the Gere
character as somebody who is quick witted schemer, but at the same time
it made his victim not as dullards but people who are skeptics but at
the same time hopeful of publishing a once in a career book. To me the
biggest flaw in the screenplay and yes the movie is when Irving starts
to see his book as something that would bring down President Nixon. He
sees the Nixon- Hughes connection and deduct that it would bring down
the President. Although the Nixon- Hughes connection was one of the
possible reason for the Watergate Affair, I seriously doubt the real
Clifford Irving believe that his book would have as major an impact.Overall, it was a well made and entertaining movie with two very
serious flaws, Richard Gere's casting and how the book is linked too
much to Watergate.
"Oh what a tangled web…"
In the early 1970's, a struggling novelist by the name of Clifford
Roland E. Zwick (magneteach@aol.com) from United States - 21 September 2008Irving came up with a humdinger of a way to sell his next book: he
duped his publishers and the world-at-large into believing that Howard
Hughes had personally authorized him to pen the reclusive billionaire's
much sought-after autobiography. Through elaborate trickery and some
shrewd undercover work, Irving managed to bamboozle a whole cadre of
literary agents and publishers into thinking that both he and the story
he was telling were on the up-and-up. In fact, the only people who knew
what was really going on were his wife, his mistress and his best
friend and fellow author, Richard Suskind, who was roped into helping
Irving pull off his mind-boggling ruse."The Hoax" joins such recent films as "Catch Me If You Can" and "Color
Me Kubrick" in its portrayal of a true-life figure who weaves an ever
more tangled web of lies and deceit to achieve fame, fortune or, at the
very least, a little boost for his own deflated ego. For there's
something about the human psyche that allows us to believe we can get
away with fooling all of the people all of the time and not get caught
in the end. Isn't that the thinking that goes into virtually every
crime that's committed - this sense that we can game the system and the
mindless dolts who operate within it without ourselves becoming exposed
in the process? Yet, paradoxically, there is also the adrenalin-rush
created by the suspicion ever lurking in the recesses of our minds that
we won't be able to pull it off in the end. Much of the fun of "The
Hoax" lies in watching as these two concomitant emotions do battle on
the field of Irving's conscience - his intoxication with himself
growing the longer he is able to pull off his scam without getting
caught, and his flights of panic becoming ever more pronounced as the
scheme begins to gradually unravel around him.As Irving, Richard Gere, who has rarely been better on screen, captures
this manic energy to a tee, his sense of personal conquest reflected in
the barest twinkle in his eyes. Writer William Wheeler and director
Lasse Hallstrom keep the tone light and fast-paced for the most part so
as to avoid turning the material into a heavy-handed ethical statement
about the cost of dishonesty and lying, though the last half hour cuts
deep as a cautionary tale for all would-be frauds and phonies out there
who might be planning a similar stunt. The movie is particularly
hilarious in the scenes involving Suskind, the friend who can't resist
the lure of untold riches but who clearly lacks the nerves of iron one
requires for a life of crime. Alfred Molina, with his nervous tics,
deer-in-the-headlights expression and beads of sweat constantly pouring
down his forehead, is a joy to behold in every scene he's in. Marcia
Gay Harden, Hope Davis, Stanley Tucci and Eli Wallach in a delightful
cameo appearance round out the excellent cast.By the end of the movie, the filmmakers have done a pretty effective
job blurring the lines between what really happened and what would
appear to be the elaborate paranoid delusions of a man who has lied so
much that he can no longer differentiate fact from fantasy. In the
final analysis, then, "The Hoax" is a morality tale about the perils of
dishonesty and deception, as evidenced by the fact that Clifford's book
and its influence on Nixon helped to usher in the Watergate era (the
little-known connection between the billionaire and the president is
just one of the many stunning revelations to be found in this film).
It's a legacy that Irving and, by extension, the rest of us have had to
live with for close to forty years now.
Detached Convoluted Story shallow overall
The Hoax is an emotionally detached movie who's material is not very
pc95 from San Diego - 2 August 2008satisfying to watch. It's like watching a movie about how people go
crazy over seeing or being identified with movie stars in public and
what that could drive someone into doing - at the core trying to gain
power, fame and wealth - or to walk among societal knowns for the sake
of the spotlight. This doesn't make for compelling motivations or
identifiable sympathies. It's quite shallow, pretentious, and pathetic.
The acting is pretty well done although any dramatic elements in the
movie feel coy and suffer from the main drive of the movie. The
convolution of lies eventually catch up, but there's no redemptive
value or emotional investment to make it worthwhile. Glitzy and
unsubstantial.
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