True lies

>> The Hoax tells the fascinating story of real-life faux Howard Hughes biographer Clifford Irving

by MATTHEW HAYS

Media hoaxes have all become a wee bit tired, though the analysis of them in the mainstream press remains incredibly shallow. When Oprah Winfrey busted author James Frey on her show for bending the truth, for example, I wish she’d delved a bit further into questions surrounding whether or not one author or filmmaker can ever really capture an essential truth.

With his latest film, director Lasse Hallström (Chocolat, The Cider House Rules) recalls one of the great media hoaxes, in which struggling writer Clifford Irving claimed to have exclusive access to famed reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes in the early ’70s. Played here with gusto by Richard Gere, Irving actually managed to get one of the top American publishers to give him an advance and a million-dollar payment (at that time a lot of money) to Hughes himself for the reflections on his life.

But Irving had never met Hughes. It was all one giant ploy, and because Hughes hadn’t granted an interview in about a decade and was phobic of people generally, Irving knew that there was very little way that anyone could check his tall tales of meeting Hughes and gaining his trust.

There’s plenty of good period detail here—from the über-’70s office décor to someone drinking a Tab Cola—but the real hilarity of watching the story is the sheer chutzpah Irving showed in his connivance. With the subplot of his chronic infidelity as a constant reminder of his duplicitous nature, Irving becomes a Shakespearean character. Gere is up to the task.

Based-on-a-true-story movies present their own deals with the devil. On some level, the audience is always getting off on the fact that they’re watching something that actually happened, but the same audience also grants the filmmakers a degree of licence in pumping up the dramatic volume a notch or two. That’s the case here, as The Hoax plays with certain key elements in the storyline (understandable, given the fact that Irving himself wrote a memoir about The Hoax that in turn had its authenticity questioned).

True lies aside, The Hoax is a highly entertaining movie about the man Time magazine once dubbed “The Con Man of the Year.” An often hilarious and titillating diversion.

The Hoax opens Friday, April 6

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