by Orrin Konheim

Created on: November 18, 2008

"The Hoax" might be termed a feel-good story about the Watergate Era with Richard Gere's Cliff Irving making a surprisingly likeable antihero.

Clifford Irving, based on a true figure, is a down-on-his-luck author who nearly got away with what is deemed as the scam of the century as he authored a best-selling tell-all biography of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes whom he had never, in fact, met. Marcia Gay Harden plays his wife, Hope Davis plays his mistress (bet you can't guess where that one's going?) and Alfred Molina plays his sidekick through the criminal escapade. In the film, Irving has to slip his book by the skeptics at the publishing company and goes so far as to doctor Hughes' voice and rent a helicopter (which Howard Hughes is supposed to be in) and fly it onto the roof of the building, to cover his tracks.

I found the film to be an oddly sublime marriage of director and material: Lasse Hollstrom's penchant for rich storylines that veer towards happy endings is combined with characters that add a certain satirical element to the film. Hollstrom, who previously directed What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Cider House Rules, and Chocolat asserted in an interview with Scott Hollerean of box office mojo that Cliff Irving was symbolic of the anti-establishment attitudes of the era. When asked for what motivated Cliff Irving, Hollstrom said, "And I think it was a part of the early Seventieswhich was all about finding a cool way of needling the Establishment, of questioning the Establishment."

The film makes Gere's Irving a character to root for and encourages its audience to push our reservations about Irving's morals into the back of our minds. Gere's version of Irving is of a man who is so far into his own life, he probably could pass a polygraph test for it, and that's not only what makes his hoax almost work, but that's also what makes him compelling. Irving is portrayed as a shade of grey, through most of the story and he is also in conflict with his own morals. He had an affair but struggled with himself for it, as he tried insisting that the mistress divorce him and get married. The film asks, more importantly, was Cliff Irving really that bad of a guy when neither of the two big figures in the film were honest?

Backed by Gere's likeable anti-hero who gives us someone to root for and Alfred Molina supplying an odd couple dynamic with him, the film is an enjoyable ride.

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