The Hoax Details

The Hoax

Richard Gere gives one of the best performances of his career in Lasse Hallstrom's vastly entertaining THE HOAX, based on true events. Gere stars as Clifford Irving, a struggling writer desperate to be a famous bestselling author. After his novel gets rejected, he concocts a crazy plot in which he convinces McGraw-Hill that he has been contacted by Howard Hughes in order to tell the official life story of the reclusive billionaire. With the help of his friend, nervous writer Dick Suskind (Alfred Molina), and Irving's artist wife, Edith (Marcia Gay Harden), he attempts to get away with one of the greatest literary hoaxes of the 20th century. He goes to elaborate lengths to pull the wool over the eyes of his editor, Andrea Tate (Hope Davis), as well as his publisher, Shelton Fisher (Stanley Tucci), and the managing editor of Life magazine, Ralph Graves (Zeljko Ivanek), who is offering big bucks to serialise the book. As Irving gets deeper and deeper into the lies, he begins to embody Hughes, mimicking the way he looks and talks. The film features excellent performances all around, including star turns by Eli Wallach as longtime Hughes employee Noah Dietrich (a part played by John C. Reilly in Martin Scorsese's THE AVIATOR) and Julie Delpy as Nina Van Pallandt, a former flame of Irving's whom he can't shake loose. Director Hallstrom (MY LIFE AS A DOG, CHOCOLAT, THE CIDER HOUSE RULES) shows a deft hand with the complex material; William Wheeler based the script in part on Clifford Irving's own memoir.

Starring	Richard Gere, Michael J. Burg, Julie Delpy, Hope Davis, Marcia Gay Harden, Alfred Molina, Stanley Tucci, Eli Wallach, Stuart Margolin
Director	Lasse Hallstrom
Studio	MOMENTUM PICTURES
Run time	DVD: 1 hr 51 mins
Certificate
Genres	Comedy, Drama
Language	English
Released	DVD: 28 Jan 2008 Production year: 2007
Format	DVD