A fantastic about-face for both director Lasse Hallström and star Richard Gere — representing the best work in years for each — The Hoax tells the story of Clifford Irving, a novelist who, in 1971, faked an autobiography of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes. A roguish, spry and
darkly comedic caper, The Hoax is a movie that milks high drama out of low-key
stakes before then folding the secrets and lies at the core of its
story into an even grander speculative conspiracy than its blithely egotistical
protagonist could have initially imagined — one tied to burgeoning paranoia in the Nixon White House.
What William Wheeler’s superb script smartly taps into is not just the
outlandish and colorful surface intrigue of its story — the nuts and
bolts of the faking of the biography — but the secret, unexplainable
thrill that all of this gives Irving. Even if it’s heretofore been
dormant, it’s hardwired to his soul, this need for attention and
respect. What we’re actually watching, then, is the magnificent implosion of an addictive
personality, and the adrenaline rush that piling lie on top of lie
gives Irving. Knowing that only the most bizarre and outlandish ones
will work (to match Hughes’ eccentric and impulsive personality), the
author’s spiraling deception is the fuel on which The Hoax
runs. So potent is its force, too, that by the end of the movie, one is
improbably siding alongside Irving, waiting on a rooftop for a
helicopter visit from Hughes that one knows can’t possibly be coming. For the full review, from FilmStew, click here.
