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THE HOAX (2007) (***1/2)

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Director Lasse Hallstrom is a filmmaker that I look forward to seeing new work from, because he made two of my favorite films, MY LIFE AS A DOG and WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE?, and I'm a great admirer of his ONCE AROUND. Though flawed, his best film since GRAPE was THE CIDER HOUSE RULES, which was released back in 1999. He's been making safe films ever since. Now with the release of THE HOAX, he has something meatier to deal with that delivers.

The film is based on the true story of Clifford Irving (Richard Gere, CHICAGO), a struggling writer who sells a fake autobiography of Howard Hughes to publisher McGraw-Hill. In weaving his deception, Irving enlists his friend Dick Suskind (Alfred Molina, FRIDA) to serve as his researcher. Irving fakes handwritten notes from Hughes that fool experts. Along with Suskind, they listen to congressional testimony to get down the reclusive millionaire's speech patterns. The more money that begins changing hands, the more scrutiny Irving comes under, which makes his story more and more outlandish. When he says Hughes wants $1 million for the book, he gets it. Soon his painter wife Edith (Marcia Gay Harden, POLLACK) gets wrapped up in the scam.

Gere is an actor who is only getting better with age. Gone are the stiff performances of his youth. There is a conviction to his performance in this film that helps blur the line between whether Irving is just a compulsive liar or begins to actually believe his own deceits. As Irving's right hand man, Molina gives a great subtle supporting turn as a man who never wanted to fool anyone, but gets whisked along in the excitement. Harden, with a blonde dye job and German accent, is almost unrecognizable. The film also gets solid supporting work from Hope Davis (AMERICAN SPLENDOR) as editor Andrea Tate, Stanley Tucci (BIG NIGHT) as McGraw-Hill's skeptical president Shelton Fisher, Eli Wallach (THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY) as Hughes exec Noah Dietrich, Julie Delpy (BEFORE SUNRISE) as Irving's mistress, the wannabe actor/singer Nina Van Pallandt, and John Carter (SCARFACE) as the leveled headed publisher Harold McGraw.

In addition to telling the central story of Irving's hoax, the script from William Wheeler, which was based on Irving's own account of the event, shows the bigger social and political climate that this incident took place in. Watergate is linked to Irving's book and it's possible that Hughes manipulated the fraud for his own personal gains. There is some grand point, but it does add a bit of irony as a con man may have been conned as he was engaged in a con job.

This true-life story plays out at a thriller's pace. It's intriguing to see how well Irving and Suskind planned out their con and developed it. The deeper they get, the more their moral fiber will be tested. How far will they go to keep the ruse alive? What are they willing to lose?

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Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks