A formulaic interpretation of a fascinating story
Added 10/15/2009
Despite some excellent acting and a fascinating story, Lasse Hallstrom missed a golden opportunity to make a wonderful film out of Clifford Irving's book, The Hoax. The story of how Clifford Irving faked Howard Hughes' autobiography is one that demanded an honest and original approach. Unfortunately, Hallstrom sacrificed the tale to make it fit into the standard Hollywood formula, and so missed the point entirely.
The problem was motive. Why did Irving try to pull the wool over McGraw-Hill's eyes to the tune of nearly a million dollars? Why did he concoct this elaborate ruse? The way Hallstrom presents it, Irving is a down-and-out writer who, in a moment of sheer desperation, cooks up the "book of the century": the autobiography of Howard Hughes, one of the richest men in the world. He then invents what would have been a wildly unbelievable tale in any other circumstances knowing that the lure of vast profits, and Hughes' famous horror of publicity, would seal the deal. And it did. Of course, the deception weighs heavily on Irving and he starts to fall into paranoid delusions, first thinking that he is being pursued by Hughes' "CIA" and then actually coming to believe that he is Howard Hughes. (Ironically, these blatant departures from the book were the best part of the film.) Eventually, when Hughes' makes his first public statement in fifteen years denying any knowledge of the project, Irving comes clean. He serves his jail sentence full of remorse for his misbehavior. Moral: Don't lie.
The actual story of the Hoax, the one that Hallstrom missed in his eagerness to fit a round peg into a square hole, was that Irving did not have a motive. Far from being an unsuccessful writer, he had a steady income, and an ongoing contract with McGraw-Hill. He had a lovely home on Ibiza with his beautiful wife and two children. So why did he do it? For the simple reason that he could. Irving got an enormous thrill out of tricking, not just McGraw-Hill but all the major media. He enjoyed acting the part of Hughes' official biographer, and he did it well, so well that everyone was entirely convinced. His cohorts, Richard, and Edith, also entered into the spirit of this gigantic fraud with an enthusiasm that completely ignored possible consequences. These were the anti-Establishment '70s, and despite the fact that these were people born in the Great Depression, they entered into the spirit of the times with complete abandon.
For me, the real tale of someone engaged in bald-faced lying on a grand scale just as a lark, is much more interesting than the morality play cooked up by Hallstrom. Irving to this day feels, if anything, proud of his accomplishment. After all he not only fooled McGraw-Hill, he got to write a book about it. And, far from remorse, he is still trying to sell his original fake autobiography.
Now that's chutzpah.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Deceit and Consequence
Added 7/10/2009
This is a fine story depicting the consequence of lying incessantly. Clifford Irving (Gere) lies to everyone and ends up unable to avoid lying even to himself. The message is powerful and lucid, but the film never hits the viewer over the head with it. It is done well.
Richard Gere is terrific in this film. HE IS Clifford Irving! Never does the viewer feel that perhaps he is lamenting his dishonesty. Instead, his character demonstrates how, after a while, we become exactly what we dissimulate being. Gere give enormous credence to the theme - once again showing that when the role is good, he shines as brightly as the best.
The supporting cast is good, and I didn't see a weak performance in the drama. This is fine entertainment with a lesson subtly attached.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
First Time Shame on Him, Second Time Shame on...
Added 10/3/2008
"The Hoax" is a terrible movie despite some very good performances. Richard Gere's performance is not very good. He plays the role of Clifford Irving with too much intensity, closer to his fabulous character in "Breathless," than to the real Clifford Irving who was as cool as the proverbial cucumber. People keep referring to Gere's Irving in the movie as cool though his performance is anything but that.
Alfred Molina does a very nice job with his role as Irving's reluctant, nervous, but hopelessly subservient friend. Marcia Gay Harden does a good job with the confining role she was given as Irving's wife. Hope Davis, as Andrea Tate, is great as the McGraw-Hill executive pushing the hardest for the publication of Irving's hoax. She does a tremendous job of combining trust of Irving with her own ambitions. She is the best of the cast at exuding an air of wanting it to be true, even though she has serious doubts. The payoff is just so big.
But then there comes the problem of the plot. "The Hoax" is based upon a book by Clifford Irving. Irving was the second-rate novelist, despite what the movie contends, who defrauded the publishing world and the general public with a fraudulent "autobiography" of multimillionaire Howard Hughes ("Aviator" is a terrific must see and factual movie about Hughes).
It is truly amazing that the director, Lasse Hallstrom, made "The Hoax" using as his source a fraudulent book of a different kind written by Irving, the original con man himself. To foist upon the viewing public the original liar's new set of lies as fact is seriously dumb. "The Hoax" proves again that once a liar always a liar.
There is absolutely no proof that Irving ever received or possessed the anonymous materials about a Nixon-Hughes connection portrayed in the film. That is a lie. In the mountain of reporting surrounding Watergate, to my knowledge, Clifford Irving was never mentioned as having any connection with it. The portrayal of an Irving connection to the Watergate affair is a lie; one might even call it a hoax. All of the White House conversations are made up by the filmmakers, taking artistic license to a new depth.
The assertion by the filmmakers at the end of the movie about a Watergate tie-in is a desperate attempt try to lend credibility to a ridiculous assertion. Clifford Irving had as much to do with bringing about the Watergate break-in as he did with writing a Hughes biography, building the Three Gorges Dam in China, or discovering Bigfoot; absolutely nothing. Seriously dumb to believe it.
Before watching the movie, one should first watch the "special feature" showing an embarrassed Mike Wallace, one of Irving's many victims, explaining how he was duped. Watch how cooly Irving lies throughout the short interview section. Then decide if you can bring yourself to believe Irving's version of events as portrayed in "The Hoax."
Wallace has an excuse for being duped, since he was lied to the first time around. Shame on Clifford Irving. Hallstrom has no excuse to believe Irving's new set of lies the second time around. Shame on Hallstrom.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
|
"Oh, what a tangled web..."
Added 9/22/2008
In the early 1970's, a struggling novelist by the name of Clifford Irving came up with a humdinger of a way to sell his next book: he duped his publishers and the world-at-large into believing that Howard Hughes had personally authorized him to pen the reclusive billionaire`s much sought-after autobiography. Through elaborate trickery and some shrewd undercover work, Irving managed to bamboozle a whole cadre of literary agents and publishers into thinking that both he and the story he was telling were on the up-and-up. In fact, the only people who knew what was really going on were his wife, his mistress and his best friend and fellow author, Richard Suskind, who was roped into helping Irving pull off his mind-boggling ruse.
"The Hoax" joins such recent films as "Catch Me If You Can" and "Color Me Kubrick" in its portrayal of a true-life figure who weaves an ever more tangled web of lies and deceit to achieve fame, fortune or, at the very least, a little boost for his own deflated ego. For there's something about the human psyche that allows us to believe we can get away with fooling all of the people all of the time and not get caught in the end. Isn't that the thinking that goes into virtually every crime that's committed - this sense that we can game the system and the mindless dolts who operate within it without ourselves becoming exposed in the process? Yet, paradoxically, there is also the adrenalin-rush created by the suspicion ever lurking in the recesses of our minds that we won't be able to pull it off in the end. Much of the fun of "The Hoax" lies in watching as these two concomitant emotions do battle on the field of Irving's conscience - his intoxication with himself growing the longer he is able to pull off his scam without getting caught, and his flights of panic becoming ever more pronounced as the scheme begins to gradually unravel around him.
As Irving, Richard Gere, who has rarely been better on screen, captures this manic energy to a tee, his sense of personal conquest reflected in the barest twinkle in his eyes. Writer William Wheeler and director Lasse Hallstrom keep the tone light and fast-paced for the most part so as to avoid turning the material into a heavy-handed ethical statement about the cost of dishonesty and lying, though the last half hour cuts deep as a cautionary tale for all would-be frauds and phonies out there who might be planning a similar stunt. The movie is particularly hilarious in the scenes involving Suskind, the friend who can't resist the lure of untold riches but who clearly lacks the nerves of iron one requires for a life of crime. Alfred Molina, with his nervous tics, deer-in-the-headlights expression and beads of sweat constantly pouring down his forehead, is a joy to behold in every scene he's in. Marcia Gay Harden, Hope Davis, Stanley Tucci and Eli Wallach in a delightful cameo appearance round out the excellent cast.
By the end of the movie, the filmmakers have done a pretty effective job blurring the lines between what really happened and what would appear to be the elaborate paranoid delusions of a man who has lied so much that he can no longer differentiate fact from fantasy. In the final analysis, then, "The Hoax" is a morality tale about the perils of dishonesty and deception, as evidenced by the fact that Clifford's book and its influence on Nixon helped to usher in the Watergate era (the little-known connection between the billionaire and the president is just one of the many stunning revelations to be found in this film). It's a legacy that Irving and, by extension, the rest of us have had to live with for close to forty years now.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Great movie on a Hoax of epic proportions
Added 9/21/2008
This movie really held my attention. Richard Gere was perfect. I was astonished that Clifford Irving seemingly didn't really care that he was creating lies on top of lies. Well, yeah he cared enough to continue the deception so that he, his wife Edith (Marcia Gay Harden) and his cohort Dick Suskind (Alfred Molina) were always one step ahead of being uncovered (almost). His obsession with "The Hoax" was so powerful, he began to believe he was actually meeting Howard Hughes.
Particularly entertaining were the scenes when Irving took on the persona of Howard Hughes ( by listening to tape recordings of him) in attempts to actually "feel" the inner sanctum of the Hughes psyche. Also the perceived reality (dreams) that he was kidnapped by the CIA to answer to Hughes about the whole deception.
I really enjoyed this movie and felt there were no flat spots in it; due in part, to Irving's constant juggling of lies between the publishers and everyone else suspicious of his and Suskind's dealings. And the persistent paranoia of Dick Suskind (in which Irving blew off, most of the time) that ended up permeating the mind of Irving himself, in the end.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
