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Title: The Hoax
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Parents, there is some mild strong language, but otherwise there's nothing wrong with this film. Recommended for ages 14 and up. |
"The more outrageous I tell a lie the more convincing I sound," says Clifford Irving, a man who's major claim to fame was writing a autobiography about Howard Hughes. This autobiography had the biggest advance ever in the form of $250,000 dollars, which was eventually bumped up to $1,000,000. The book was written, the information in the book was confirmed to be genuine, and the book would have potentially sold a billion copies if it weren't for the fact that the book was a fake. Near the end of the Nixon era Howard Hughes was becoming more and more delusional. Having broke off contact from the world and media some fifteen odd years ago, Howard Hughes was still famous despite not really doing anything of significance in recent times. Clifford Irving (Richard Gere) is a struggling writer who is about to have his big break.
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He's just written a novel, and it looks like the publishers are going to release it and poise him for greatness. Sadly, the book gets canceled, and Clifford finds himself in need of some serious cash. Therefore he tells the book company that he is writing the biggest book of the century: Howard Hughes authorized autobiography. After handing the book company a forged letter from Mr. Hughes confirming the autobiography, Clifford, along with fellow author and researcher Dick Susskind (Alfred Molina), embark on one of publishing biggest scams of all time. Trust me folks, this scam tops the Stephen Glass scam with The New Republic that took place in the nineties. The lengths that Clifford goes to to make sure that the autobiography feels authentic included taking pictures of government files, forging letters, and creating fake interview recordings.
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Believing that Howard Hughes won't get involved with the book because he's too reclusive, all heck breaks lose when a man claiming to be Howard Hughes calls a journalist and claims that he's never met with Clifford nor does he even know who he is. Despite the fact that Howard Hughes seems more concerned about the book, Clifford and Dick move along with writing the book, piling lie and deception on top of each other. After awhile the pressure starts to cave, and Clifford starts to have delusions and fantasies that bring his own reality into question. Being in the audience of this movie is like watching a man self-destruct. We never agree with the actions of this man, but we can't deny that we get a rush out of the whole situation.
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We don't want the man to get away with what he's doing...but at the same time, we're having too much fun to hope he gets stopped. Near the end of the movie I found myself sweating just as much as Clifford was, with an uncertainty of what other options there were. Either he gets away with the scam for a short period of time, or he doesn't get away with it at all. Howard Hughes denounced the book on live television via a telephone call to trusted journalists, therefor bringing the publication of the book to a halt with all existing copies destroyed. The tagline at the end of the movie explains that while the incident caused a big shake-up in Clifford's life, it ultimately led to bigger and better things, with Clifford and Dick both publishing several novels after their prison sentences were up.
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Still, Clifford has spent years trying to sell the Howard Hughes autobiography unsuccessfully. He briefly self-published it for a short period of time in 1999, and the book hasn't been seen since. Ironically, once this movie generates some serious buzz, chances are we'll be seeing the book published by a real book publisher once more. And you know what? When that happens I'll be the first in line to buy it and read it. Yeah, it might not be the real deal, but a book that has this much effort put into the scam has to be worth reading on some level.
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