Product Details

• Actors: David Aaron Baker, John Carter (IV), Judi Barton, Raul Julia Jr., James Biberi
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Miramax
• DVD Release Date: October 16, 2007
• Run Time: 116 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000TAN90Y
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #88,189 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Hoax" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Hoax is a happy surprise. Surprise because, for once, having a film's release date bumped back half a year didn't mean it's a dog. Happy because Lasse Hallström's dancing-on-eggshells comedy about a notorious literary scandal of the 1970s is bounteously entertaining, with more solid laughs and certainly slyer wit than, say, the latest Will Ferrell romp.

The subject is the world-shaking con an unsuccessful writer named Clifford Irving (Richard Gere) ran on some supposedly sharp cookies in the highest echelons of Manhattan publishing. Irving persuaded McGraw-Hill and Life magazine that ultra-reclusive tycoon Howard Hughes had selected him to transcribe his memoirs. It's pure balderdash, a desperate improvisation by a glib-talker who's perennially one jump ahead of the repo men. But the epic audacity of Irving's scam, the quicksilver way he weaves imaginary and accidental real-life details into beguiling patterns, and the legendary self-isolation of his supposed subject all conspire to keep the fiction afloat ... for a while.

This story isn't new to cinema, though few reviewers seem aware of that. In 1973 Orson Welles told it as part of F for Fake, a kaleidoscopic meditation on art, forgery, and the slipperiness of media, in which the real-life Irving was a semi-witting participant. But there's no need to beat up on The Hoax for being inferior to that postmodern masterpiece. Hallström and a deft cast do a killer job on the skyscraper corporate world where there are always more people in the room than there are useful purposes for them to serve (see especially Hope Davis, Stanley Tucci, and Zjelko Ivanek); Marcia Gay Harden summons up a daft Viking serenity as spouse Edith Irving, a.k.a. "Helga R. Hughes"; and Alfred Molina rates a supporting Oscar nod for his balletic suspension between bemusement and panic attack as Dick Suskind, Irving's researcher accomplice and conscience-in-default. As for the con artist in chief, Richard Gere dials back the narcissism of previous performances to limn a schmuck just suave enough to seduce even himself. --Richard T. Jameson

Product Description

From acclaimed director Lasse Hallstrom comes the unbelievable true story of Clifford Irving, the writer who faked the authorized autobiography of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes and came close to pulling off the media scam of the 20th century. Irving’s elaborate attempts to substantiate his claims – forgery, plagiarism, and falsifying legal documents – spark a media frenzy and take Irving down a neurotic spiral as he begins to suspect a vast conspiracy including the U.S. government and corporate empires are plotting against him.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amusing recreation of the 1970's deception, April 14, 2007

By 

Cory D. Slipman (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Director Lasse Hallstrom's dedicated re-enactment of Clifford Irving's memoirs of his fraudulent autobiography of mysterious, antisocial millionaire Howard Hughes, "The Hoax", is his most impressive work since the 2000 film "Chocolat". Using film footage of the Hughes and also President Nixon and the tumultuous times of the 70's, he creates a sometimes comedic look back at this memorable scandal.

Richard Gere does well in his portrayal of struggling author Irving, a man obviously devoid of a conscience, who conjures up the idea of faking a Hughes autobiography. He figures that the reclusive Hughes would never surface to dispute the veracity of Irving's well researched but fictitious novel. Alfred Molina playing Gere's neurotic sidekick and co-conspirator Dick Susskind is magnificent in his role, giving the movie a comic flair. Marcia Gay Harden with dyed blonde tresses and a disturbing foreign accent was annoying as Irving's wife Edith.

Hallstrom did well in demostrating the extent of Irving's delusions, actually believing himself to be in contact with Hughes and his minions. 91 year old Eli Wallach, always a treat to see on the screen, was delightful playing old codger Noah Dietrich, once a right hand man of Hughes. The movie was insightful in tying in the effect of Irving's hoax, the machinations of Hughes himself who actually communicated disavowing Irving's chicanery and important current events and the day.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The 70's off to a rollicking start., October 12, 2007

By 

D3042 "D3042" (Reston, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hoax (DVD)

A struggling writer discovers that Hughes cannot appear in court to dispute a hoax because the reclusive billionaire is in a nasty dispute with TWA shareholders. So the hoax is born. Soon though, events turn raucous when the billionaire fails to appear to allegedly vouch for the autobiography, and then another hoaxed autobiography appears in print ahead of Irving's release. The mystery of who is hoaxing who surfaces when a box of scandalous files anonymously appears at the writer's home. The frenzied sensation draws the attention of darker forces in America. Apparently, someone has to know what would be included about Hughes and Nixon's brother, Donald, who had received unrepaid loans from Hughes in the 1960 campaign, and may have received more loans in 1972. Then suddenly the hoax unravels. Within within months, Nixon is re-elected, the Hughes-TWA dispute resolves, and Americans begin to learn of a third-rate burglarly called Watergate. The Hoax is an interesting chapter in American history.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Hoax-man For A New Generation, April 8, 2007

By 

Connoisseur Rat "armchair experientialist" - See all my reviews

Despite the fact that I'm not exactly a Richard Gere fan, I went into "The Hoax" with high expectations. After all, I consider director Lasse Hallstrom - feelgood/schmaltzy though he may sometimes be ("Once Around", "The Cider House Rules") - to be one of the more consistently reliable filmmakers of the last twenty years (he's directed several of my all-time favorite films, including "My Life As A Dog", "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" and "Chocolat"). And from what little I knew of the intriguing real-life story upon which this movie is based, I figured it would be a good to very good film as long as the filmmakers didn't mess it up (and Richard Gere didn't ham it up).

Thankfully, I was wrong. It actually turned out to be a great film, and not only did the filmmakers not mess it up, they elevated the material beyond what my already-high expectations were going in. From the taut and smart script (which in my opinion is worthy of an Adapted Screenplay Oscar Nomination) to the inventive cinematography, from the (as always) imaginative direction to a surprisingly non-showboaty performance from Richard Gere (not to mention scene-stealing performances by actors in supporting roles), "The Hoax" is right up there with the best films I've seen all year.

For those of you not in the know, the story centers around (and is based on a book by) Clifford Irving, who - as we meet him in the movie - had already (quite aptly, it turns out) written the book Fake, with forgery as its subject (and you can see the real Clifford Irving in Orson Welles' classic 1974 film "F for Fake"). Now he's received verbal agreement that his publishing house, McGraw Hill, will be putting out his second book, the unfortunately named Rudnick's Problem. So he spends his advance in advance (of actually having one), even as people are repossessing his couch from previous debts owed. Then, in an ill-timed turn of events, Life Magazine - who was set to serialize the book - reads the manuscript and calls it a "third-rate Phillip Roth knock-off." Oops! Deal's off, Cliffy!

Desperate to not be ignored by his publisher, and desperate for cash and other non-perishables with which to feed his ego, Irving tells the people at McGraw-Hill that he's been commissioned to write the autobiography of infamous billionaire recluse, Howard Hughes (even though he hasn't - hoax alert!). He starts by forging letters whose handwriting is copied from a Howard Hughes profile in Life Magazine (which, if still around, would have had to pay a hell of a product placement fee for this movie).

Irving figures it's a perfect plan: "he'll never come out of hiding to denounce me because he's a lunatic hermit, and I'm the spokesman for the lunatic hermit!" This sets into motion a series of cat and mouse games as various factions try to smoke out Irving as a con artist and Irving (actually more of a rat than a mouse) ratchets up the stakes at every turn, figuring the bolder the lie, the more likely it is to be believed.

As played by Gere, Irving is a pompous, adulterous liar who's also a bit of a drama king. His wife (played with quirky delight by Marcia Gay Harden) seems to be aware of all this, dismissively telling him early in the film, "My gallery show is in 3 weeks - I don't have time for the drama now, darling." And later, she warns him to not spend time with any "special friends" as he's planning to go on a trip. That Gere plays this jerky gasbag in such a way that we not only care about him but root for him is no mean feat.

A scene-stealing Alfred Molina plays Dick Susskind, Irving's nervous nebbish reluctant co-conspirator, whom we meet as a 38 years old, unpublished author (whose wife has left him for a lesbian), trying to write a children's book featuring the dual kid-friendly themes of war and sodomy. (yes, this film has a sense of humor - there are many lines that are patently absurd and laugh out loud funny)

The picture keeps Nixon and 'Nam hovering in the background as an effective backdrop, with paranoia being the paradigm of the time and Irving himself getting so caught up in his web of deceit that he himself can barely distinguish fact from fantasy, reality from paranoid delusion. There is also a very interesting subplot involving a mysterious box that shows up on Irving's doorstep that may or may not tie Nixon and Watergate into the whole biography mess.

Not knowing too much about what really happened, to me this is the only part of the film that felt like its grasping for a bit more than it can truly hold. Intriguing, yes. Plausible? Not really. But I fully concede in advance that things might have actually played out that way in real life and that truth is indeed stranger than fiction (and that I'm an ignorant buffoon). And regardless of whether it's the way events actually happened or not, the screenplay is pure genius, with lots of quotable lines and crisp dialog.

In some early reviews, I've seen a lot of comparisons made to the journalistic con artist Stephen Glass played by Hayden Christensen in the film "Shattered Glass". But I feel this movie owes more in its tone of well-layered psychological suspense and intrigue to the great "Quiz Show" - with Ralph Fiennes' Charles Van Doren being caught up in a scam while the truth squad closes in. Both "Quiz Show" and "The Hoax" are so artfully told, so skillfully and stylishly shot, that each film transcends its subject matter without detracting from or diluting its substantial suspense.

As "The Hoax" has some (very) minor flaws, I'd like to give it 4.5 stars. But of course, the 'Zon won't let me... so five stars it is!