Review

Review Date: 8-April-07
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK

The Hoax (2007)

In the interest of journalistic integrity, I hereby confess that I had a splitting headache while watching "The Hoax" which may have affected my reaction to it. However it's likely that Lasse Hallström's latest film would have put me off under any circumstances. It recounts the story of real-life author Clifford Irving (played by Richard Gere) who penned a fake autobiography of Howard Hughes in the early 1970s. Irving managed to fool his publishers at McGraw-Hill and collaborators at Life magazine for months until the book hit the stands. If this telling is correct (it's based on Irving's own account, but he is clearly not to be trusted), he did it for money and glory, both elusive to a struggling writer, and because he was a fatally obsessive liar. He is not the kind of person with whom I would generally enjoy spending two hours, and this movie is no exception.

Indeed an awkwardness pervades "The Hoax" because the entire cast does a fine job making all the characters unsavory while Hallström (and probably the source material) expects the audience to like or be amused by them. The movie offers the excuse that since the entire era was steeped in lies which culminated in the resignation of President Nixon, one man's swindle should not be taken too seriously. Beyond being a weak argument, this results in an unevenness of tone and feels like a disservice to the cast. Gere paints a believable portrait of a bold, immature eccentric who lives on impulse and hits upon the right confluence of luck, inspiration, and hutzpah to almost pull off his hoax. The actor recently commented that he can explore new avenues now that he's past the age for romantic leads, but his presence here seems aimed at garnering sympathy for Irving because he still looks sexy and charismatic. If this was the filmmakers' intention, Gere rises above it. His protagonist is odious. He manipulates and betrays not only his agent (Hope Davis), business partners, and the world at large, but also his best friend (Alfred Molina) and wife (Marcia Gay Harden), not to mention Hughes, whose own eccentricity makes him vulnerable. Granted, everyone at McGraw-Hill and Life is depicted as a sniveling prospector, and his wife and bosom buddy happily board the deceit wagon so they deserve him. (Again, just because Molina is engaging by nature and bumbles with proficiency doesn't mean his character is lovable.) What these con artists did was immoral and stupid. I was hoping "The Hoax" would either turn their tale into a lark or illuminate the criminality behind the scam. Instead it tries both with a touch of social/political commentary so that nothing seems fully sincere.

Copyright © 2007 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.