Based on the true story. Would we lie to you?
Early in 1971, McGraw-Hill passes on Clifford Irving's new novel. He's desperate for money, so, against the backdrop of Nixon's reelection calculations, Irving claims he has Howard Hughes's cooperation to write Hughes's autobiography. With the help of friend Dick Suskind, Irving does research, lucks into a manuscript written by a long-time Hughes associate, and plays on corporate greed. He's quick-thinking and outrageously bold. Plus, he banks on Hughes's reluctance to enter the public eye. At the same time, he's trying to rebuild his marriage and deflect the allure of his one-time mistress, Nina Van Pallandt. Can he write a good book, take the money, and pull off the hoax?
Genre(s): Comedy, Drama
Runtime: 116 minutes
Rating: 6.9/10 (8,202 votes)
Release Date: 15 October 2006
Country: USA
Languages: English
Company: Miramax Films
Sound: SDDS, Dolby Digital, DTS
MPAA: Rated R for language.
Director(s): Lasse Hallström
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Producer(s):
Betsy Beers - producer
Erin Eggers - co-producer
Mark Gordon - producer
Leslie Holleran - producer
Anthony Katagas - executive producer
Paul A. Levin - associate producer
Gary Levinsohn - executive producer
Joshua D. Maurer - producer
Suzanne Patmore Gibbs - co-producer
Bob Yari - producer
Writer(s):
William Wheeler - (screenplay)
Clifford Irving - (book "The Hoax")
Cast:
David Aaron Baker - Brad Silber
John Carter - Harold McGraw
Judi Barton - Marion
Raul Julia Jr. - Bike Messenger
James Biberi - McGraw-Hill Security
Richard Gere - Clifford Irving
Hope Davis - Andrea Tate
Christopher Evan Welch - Albert Vanderkamp
Okwui Okpokwasili - Malika
Alfred Molina - Dick Suskind
Music: Carter Burwell
Betsy Beers - producer
Erin Eggers - co-producer
Mark Gordon - producer
Leslie Holleran - producer
Anthony Katagas - executive producer
Paul A. Levin - associate producer
Gary Levinsohn - executive producer
Joshua D. Maurer - producer
Suzanne Patmore Gibbs - co-producer
Bob Yari - producer
Writer(s):
William Wheeler - (screenplay)
Clifford Irving - (book "The Hoax")
Cast:
David Aaron Baker - Brad Silber
John Carter - Harold McGraw
Judi Barton - Marion
Raul Julia Jr. - Bike Messenger
James Biberi - McGraw-Hill Security
Richard Gere - Clifford Irving
Hope Davis - Andrea Tate
Christopher Evan Welch - Albert Vanderkamp
Okwui Okpokwasili - Malika
Alfred Molina - Dick Suskind
Music: Carter Burwell
Posted on: April 20, 2008
March 22nd, 2008
The received wisdom is that if you lie, you must stick as closely tothe truth as practical, in order to make the lie believable. That,basically, is what Clifford Irving did with his fabricated"autobiography" of Howard Hughes, the secretive and eccentricbillionaire. The problem is that everyone is already familiar with thatdictum. If a man spends an evening with another woman, he's not likelyto tell his wife that he was busy giving a speech at the Junior Chamberof Commerce. The alternative to the received wisdom is The Big Lie, thelie so huge, so outrageous, that others believe it because no one but amadman would make it up. That's what Hitler accused the Jews of doing,and Goebbels the English. Or, in the anonymous words of the Wikipediaessayist: "The Big Lie is a propaganda technique. It was defined byAdolf Hitler in his 1925 autobiography Mein Kampf as a lie so"colossal" that no one would believe that someone "could have theimpudence to distort the truth so infamously".
If Irving and his co-conspirators built a near-replicant of Hughes'real life, they surrounded it with fantasies so rich that nobody couldpossibly doubt them. Would a fraud claim that Hughes was about to landhis helicopter atop a New York building for a meeting with McGraw-Hill– on the condition that the top two floors of the building be cleared,the floors scrubbed and waxed, and black non-dust-collecting materialbe draped across all the windows? It must be common knowledge by nowthat Irving did a great deal of research on Howard Hughes — right downto imitating his voice on tape in order to get Hughes' grammaticalerrors and idiosyncratic expressions just right — and tried to sellthe result to McGraw-Hill for five million dollars or more. The hoaxwas exposed when a reluctant Hughes finally agreed to a publicconference call in which he denied the whole business. Irving spentsome time in the slams but nobody was very badly hurt.
The movie is based on Clifford Irving's book, "The Hoax." In otherwords, a quarter of a century later, Irving is still making money offhis little adventure. Following Irving, the movie tells us that it allstarted off as a prank, a big joke that gradually got bigger. PoorIrving. He became a neural shambles trying to keep the enterprisetogether, what with betrayals by friends, threats from outside sources,traps set for him by Hughes and the President of the United Stateshimself, the increased stress on his marriage.
According to this fable, the wretched Irving is almost driven mad byhis responsibility — to others, that is. He never thinks of himself.He worries about his family. He worries about his friend's marriage. Hereceives a mysterious package full of secret data about Hughes,including a damning connection between Hughes and Nixon that couldbring down Nixon's administration. Thereafter, Irving devotes himselfto what he now sees as the pursuit of truth and justice. That is, heowes it to the American public that his fraudulent book be publishedbecause it may contain nuggets of truth.
Does anyone believe this unspeakable crap anymore? Irving was asmooth-talking, ambitious con man and self promoter who had a toothsomeblond girl friend, who soaked up the publicity during appearances on TVtalk shows, and who eagerly anticipated the millions of dollars thatwere to be bilked from a respectable publisher, a rich but privatecitizen, and the millions of ordinary readers who would have bought hisfake book. He was undeterred by his exposure as a fraud. In laterinterviews he would immediately switch the topic of conversation to thetribulations that he and his family had been put through, especiallyhis poor little kiddies with tears in their eyes while daddy was injail. And he's STILL at it with his book now having been made into amovie starring Richard Gere.
The screenplay treats the story with the shabbiness it deserves.Hand-held cameras wobble during scenes of activity. Impossiblefantasies of Irving being kidnapped at night, beaten senseless, andthrown out of hotel windows by agents of Howard Hughes prompt oursympathy. (It never happened, and the movie tries to explain it as adrunken fantasy so convincing that Irving believed it had happened. Iask you, the honest reader, the experienced drunk — when is the lasttime you were so bombed that you woke up the next morning thinkingyou'd really been spirited away to Nassau, beaten by Howard Hughes,thrown into a pool, then flown back home?) Actually, one of Hughes'agents shows up from time to time as a hallucinated figure with whichIrving has extensive and informative exchanges. The hallucination isn'tentirely without sympathy for Irving, but generally practical andsuitably distant. I got a little tired of these realistichallucinations during "A Brilliant Mind." I didn't mind them too muchwhen Willie Loman talked with them because, back in the late 1940s,they had a touch of originality. Here, they're just cheap expositorytricks.
The whole movie is like that — cheap and self serving. The Big Jokeconflated with The Big Lie. It stinks.
March 26th, 2008
The movie is good, entertaining and enjoyable. Richard Gere and AlfredMolina did a great job. The problem is that you are watching asupposedly real story, tied to the very history of the country andthere is a major flaw related to the Nixon administration. The realIrving himself denies some other minor facts portrayed in the moviethat don't affect "the big picture", maybe just the surroundings anddidn't matter to me, but the story is tainted by one single fact thatIrving refutes. That single fact was what, at the end of the movie,left me thinking "did this really happened?". So I did some researchonly to find that that single fact was made up in the movie. Since thatfact is critical, I felt quite disappointed. That's why I "downgraded"the movie to a 6. Other than that, it's still worth to see how Irvingwas able to achieve such a hoax, since most of the other importantfacts are still true.
April 7th, 2008
I don't know if the idea of it being based on true events makes it moreriveting but either way the film is absolutely astonishing. I had neverheard of the story before so it was all new to me but regardless thefilm just reels you in and keeps your gripped into every aspect of thestory. Basically you're following exclusively in the life of CliffordIrving which in this case is pulse pounding and riveting because he'sattempting to pull off the hoax of the century and is always on theverge of getting caught and you feel every emotion that he does. Thesupporting cast is exceptionally good and only adds to the cast in agreat way. Director Lasse Hallström has a great talent for telling veryserious and deep stories and he proves it further with The Hoax. Insome ways the film is presented in a dark comedy way so it has thataura of comedy but with this very serious dramatic undertone. It'salmost done in the way of being a comedy crime caper and consideringthe very real life results of this real life hoax it wasn't much of acomedy but for the sake of being very entertaining the obscure feel ofthe film is part of what makes it truly terrific.
Richard Gere makes his second incredible performance that I've seen himdo in 2006. The first was The Hunting Party and now this incredibleturn as Clifford Irving, the writer with delusions of grandeur and ahuge plan to hoax the world. As Irving he is intelligent and passionateand high strung and just a really great character to watch. Heimpresses HUGE!! Alfred Molina is equally as great supporting Gere ashis reluctant partner in crime Dick Suskind. His character is more lowbrow than Gere's and definitely more afraid of consequences so balancesout Gere's portrayal of high strung and looking for thrill Irving. Thetwo of them are brilliant together and have great chemistry together.Marcia Gay Harden who I am not a huge fan of does a very decent job asthe scorned wife of Gere. Her character is a little off and so she doesseem to play mentally unbalanced very well. It's not stand out but it'sdecent. Stanley Tucci, John Carter, and Christopher Evan Welch are someof the strong supporting cast that really make the film watchable.
Really no matter what kind of film you're looking for The Hoax shouldbe something you see and soon. It has a little bit of comedy, drama,emotion, romance, history, and just really passionate actors playinggreat roles. The little bit of touching into reclusive billionaireHoward Hughes is really quite interesting and if you're like me made melook more into the truth of him and this story. It would seem thoughthat the film follows real life pretty closely as I didn't see anythingthat stood out from the film. The film wasn't a big success financiallybut I can't tell you enough what a real hidden gem this is. Definitelycheck it out because you won't be disappointed. 9/10
May 12th, 2008
There is nothing more interesting than a good hoax. The " CardiffGiant" was a hoax that was mesmerizing for it's ingenuity. While thismovie, "The Hoax", has the basis for maintaining interest, it is badlyblurred between speculation and facts, takes liberties with theaudience, and ultimately fails as entertainment. The acting, especiallyby Richard Gere is good, but character development is minimal, andthere are absolutely zero likable characters. The film is entirely toolong and the conclusion such a stretch that any remaining credibilityflies out the window. Finally, the authentic 70s soundtrack seemsbetter suited to a biker movie than "The Hoax" – MERK