The Hoax

In my childhood, when watching Saturday morning cartoons, there were times when I would question my loyalties to the characters everyone else seemed to love. Why was I so annoyed by Bugs Bunny while I secretly rooted for Elmer Fudd? Why would I, sometimes impatiently, watch television merely so that I would see the day when Tom finally ate Jerry's sneaky little tail?

Some might have called me a backwards child, but I think these kinds of wonderful little thoughts are what make films like The Hoax so fun to watch. In the film, Clifford Irving (Richard Gere) is one of these lying, cheating, overall scum-of-the-earth guys who we just can't help but feel completely charmed by. Let's call him the Tom to the publishing industry's Jerry.

It's 1971, and amid Vietnam War protests and political tension, Clifford Irving, a writer whose novel has recently been rejected by McGraw Hill feels cheated by the publishing industry, who continuously gives him the cold shoulder. Beginning as a sort of upbeat comedy, the film follows Clifford from the inception of his plan to pull the most outrageous hoax ever perpetrated on the media. Along with his best friend and fellow writer, Dick Susskind (Alfred Molina), and his Swiss wife Edith (Marcia Gay Harden), Irving embarks on the hugely impossible task of convincing the media that he has obtained exclusive interviews and the coveted memoirs of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes. Furthermore, Irving tells the big-shots at McGraw Hill that "Howard" (as Irving so affectionately calls Hughes) wants him to write the biography of the extremely private billionaire. Irving relies on the belief that Howard Hughes is so obsessed with his privacy that he will not make a public statement even after the book goes public.

Counting on the billionaire's hermitic nature and suspected history of mental illness, and forging all kinds of letters, documents, and even faking recorded interviews, Irving intends to prove to the skeptics that he has indeed met with Howard Hughes, and that he and Hughes deserve to be paid a record amount to produce the biography. After analyzing handwriting samples, and interrogating Irving thoroughly, the publishers, who will do whatever it takes to have a best selling book, accommodate Clifford right away so that he may begin writing the biography that is sure to take the nation by storm. All the while the suave, quick-thinking Clifford and his not so suave, not so quick thinking friend Dick are doing everything they can to keep up the ruse, from stealing top-secret documents from government agencies to staging the helicopter arrival of Hughes.

We enjoy watching Irving every time he is almost caught; as these are the times he comes up with the most unbelievable lies, and makes the head honchos of publishing feel like blubbering idiots. "The more outrageous I

sound, the more convincing I am," he says. At one point he concocts a message from Hughes in which he threatens to buy the publishing house, quoting the recluse as saying "I'll just buy the printing presses and get rid of the idiots."

When he's not terrifying the publishers into thinking Hughes is going to back out of the project, he's in his garage slowly becoming obsessed with the man he's never even met. He dresses like him, even donning a fake mustache, as he conducts fake interviews with himself as the billionaire. He rekindles an old flame with a very beautiful, very shallow woman named Nina Van Pallandt (Julie Delpy), damaging his relationship with Edith; and simultaneously alienates his best friend and partner in crime. Beginning to believe he is truly "the spokesperson for the lunatic hermit," he starts to lose his mind while believing his own lies, which become more and more extreme as the story develops. Eventually Clifford jeopardizes his wife's freedom, and even comes across documents that could be substantial evidence to one of the biggest presidential scandals in the history of the United States.

The atmosphere of the country in the 1970's is shot documentary style, while the scenes in which Irving invents his encounters with Hughes have a comical, dreamy quality. However as Clifford Irving's mental stability begins to deteriorate, the movie grows significantly darker.

Much of the exaggerated story is exaggerated in the film, yet the whole thing is so outrageous to begin with that it doesn't seem like a stretch. Richard Gere is at his absolute best as the charming, quick-witted Irving, while Alfred Molina is the perfect compliment as the nervous, rambling Dick Sussland. Marcia Gay Harden is subtle, and extremely believable as the resilient wife, and Stanley Tucci and Hope Davis are perfect as the cutthroat publishers.

With a superb cast and a fun story, The Hoax has you rooting for the "bad guy" all the way. With a main character slightly reminiscent of Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me if You Can, the film will please those of us who rooted for Elmer Fudd"¦except in this case (and in DiCaprio's) the bad guy we like, although we shouldn't, is slightly better looking.

Directed by Lasse Hallström, with a screenplay William Wheeler adapted from the novel by Clifford Irving, The Hoax does not disappoint.

Movie Grade: A-

Synopsis:

Richard Gere plays Clifford Irving, the man who wrote and sold a bogus biography of Howard Hughes to McGraw-Hill.