...a compulsive liar whose very core is a fabrication mechanism.
“The Hoax” is both delicious and dull. It is delicious when author Clifford
Irving makes monkeys of the self-righteous publishing establishment and dull
when it overwhelms us with imagery. It is the flawed but fascinating saga of the
indefatigable con man who sold his fraudulent “autobiography” of Howard Hughes
to McGraw Hill (the book) and Time Life (serial rights), the two towering giants
of publishing propriety at the time. But the flaws are understandable
considering the scope of the undertaking and the fact that Irving’s tentacles
spread widely through recent history. To cover that ground, the filmmakers
deliver that history in a somewhat confusing series of flashcards.
The time is
1971, with flashbacks to the prewar glamour and theatrics of Howard Hughes’ life
as inventor, producer, and lover to some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Director
Lasse Hallstrom assumes our familiarity with Watergate, Nixon, the Irving
imbroglio, and the publishing power center in Manhattan, and he sends these
images racing through the storyline. Irving banked on his own assumption that
forty years after his heyday, Hughes was lost in his buried and reclusive world
- too old and sick to catch on to a con man’s outsized fraud. Wrong.
The story
begins with scenes of Irving (Richard Gere) suffering a rejection of his new
book in the offices of McGraw Hill. He greets the setback with rage that affects
every facet of his life. This is a man who wants to be famous. He tells his
Andrea Tate (Hope Davis) at McGraw Hill that he is working on “the book of the
century.” Now he has to produce. After stealing a memoir from Noah Detrich (Eli
Wallach), Hughes’ gatekeeper, Irving follows a trail that leads deeper into
deception with every step he takes. The man is incapable of telling the truth
even when it would have been the easiest choice. He lies to his wife Edith (
Marcia Gay Harden), to Andrea (Hope Davis), to his mistress Nina (Julie Delpy),
and to anyone else unlucky enough to cross his path. Perhaps his most
unfortunate victim is Richard Suskin (Alfred Molina), his partner and researcher
of twelve years standing.
There is a
grand scene when Irving finally convinces two of the publishing world’s most
powerful companies that the book he has handed them in an atmosphere of
suspicion is not a fraud. Greed turns the executives into fawning sycophants.
Aside from this high point, the confusion factor is high. What is real and what
is unfolding on screen from the prevaricator’s imagination?
Clifford
Irving has written good books on other subjects. Why would he stoop to literary
theft and fraud? With fine actors supporting him, Richard Gere makes us
understand completely by creating, with great relish, a compulsive liar whose
very core is a fabrication mechanism. Gere is entirely credible as the man who,
in the words of one character, set out to sell “a fake book about the most
famous man in the world.”
Copyright (c) Illusion