The Hoax

The Hoax

Infobox Film
name = The Hoax


image_size =
caption = Theatrical poster
director = Lasse Hallström
producer = Mark Gordon Bob Yari Betsy Beers Leslie Holleran Joshua Maurer
writer = William Wheeler
narrator =
starring = Richard Gere Alfred Molina Marcia Gay Harden
music = Carter Burwell
cinematography = Oliver Stapleton
editing = Andrew Mondshein
distributor = Miramax Films
released = April 6 2007
runtime = 115 min.
country = United States
language = English
budget =
gross = $11,772,183
website = http://www.thehoaxmovie.net
amg_id = 1:331703
imdb_id = 0462338

"The Hoax" is a 2007 American drama film based on the true story of American novelist Clifford Irving's falsified autobiography about Howard Hughes. The film is directed by Lasse Hallström and written by William Wheeler. Actor Richard Gere portrays Clifford Irving, and Alfred Molina portrays Irving's associate Dick Suskind.

In July 2005, filming began in Puerto Rico and New York. This film is loosely based on Irving's hoax, but Irving once said of the film project, "I had nothing to do with this movie, and it had very little to do with me." However, as author of the source book, Irving is credited in the film as a writer. The film opened April 6, 2007.On March 6, 2007, Hyperion reissued Clifford Irving's "The Hoax" in a movie tie-in edition.

Cast

*Richard Gere as Clifford Irving
*Alfred Molina as Dick Suskind
*Marcia Gay Harden as Edith Irving
*Hope Davis as Andrea Tate
*Julie Delpy as Nina Van Pallandt
*Stanley Tucci as Shelton Fisher
*Dan Fleury as Robert Brenly, Life Magazine journalist
*Eli Wallach as Noah Dietrich

Plot

Author Clifford Irving discusses his latest book project with executives at the McGraw-Hill publishing firm. His prior effort, on an art forger, has sold poorly. The McGraw-Hill board are more impressed by the new effort, and Irving is led to believe that at last he has his breakout work.

He celebrates, only to then be informed that a magazine editor had read and discounted the work, and McGraw-Hill have now decided not to publish it, leaving Irving extremely bitter.

Vacationing with his friend and researcher, Richard Suskind, Irving is ejected from his hotel at 1 a.m. when Howard Hughes arrives and demands the entire building be emptied of guests. Returning to New York to meet with his publishers he is upset to find that he has been fobbed off onto one of the assistants. Irving storms into the board room and announces he has the "book of the century," threatening to take it elsewhere if McGraw-Hill is not interested.

Irving struggles to come up with a suitable topic for his grandiose book-of-the-century claim, rejecting numerous suggestions from Dick Suskind. It is then he catches sight of a magazine cover and article about the secret world of Howard Hughes and decides that this is the book that the world wants.

He approaches his former publishers and claims to have been summoned by Hughes and selected to write his autobiography, providing forged handwritten notes from Hughes as "proof". Handwriting experts wrongly conclude that the notes are genuine, and the board strikes a $500,000 deal for the book, accepting the slightly bizarre conditions imposed as the eccentricities of a reclusive billionaire.

For Clifford Irving it comes close to a perfect crime. Hughes is so reclusive and wary of legal action, that he is unlikely ever to sue Irving. His eccentricities also mean that denials by Hughes on the book's authenticity may well be treated as misdirection. The resulting book will generate a massive sum of money, with more coming through serialisation rights, all of which will be his, not having to share it with Hughes.

Irving is currently undergoing marital problems with Edith Irving, an artist. A recent affair between Clifford Irving and Nina Van Pallandt, an actress and wife of a millionaire, has left Edith hurt and skeptical of Clifford. He assures Edith he will be faithful, and leaves to begin his research.

Irving spends hours studying documents, speeches and other recordings of Hughes to create an authenticity that will fool even the experts. Irving and Suskind illicitly obtain a copy of a draft biography of Noah Dietrich, a retired Hughes aide, which provides details that add to the apparent authenticity of the work. Irving begins reciting passages for the book into a tape recorder in character as Hughes, going so far as to dress as Hughes and draw a Hughes-like moustache on himself during these sessions.

At one point during the writing of his work, a mysterious box of documents arrives, containing explosive information about questionable dealings between Hughes and President Richard Nixon, implying that Hughes had provided monetary favors to Nixon's campaign and made a personal loan to Nixon's brother in exchange for favorable treatment by the administration. Irving assumes the package is from Hughes and convinces himself Hughes now supports the false autobiography and wants the damaging material included in order to bring down the President, whose support for Hughes has eroded.

As the publication date draws closer, Irving steps up his pretense, including staging an aborted meeting between Hughes and the publishers. However, denials start to filter out from Hughes’ headquarters that he is involved in any way with the book. The pressure begins to build, but the publishers are convinced it is a genuine work. Irving's script has been so convincingly researched, and tinged with real and very secret disclosures, that it convinces the experts to be genuine. Irving also uses the publishers' increasing desire for the hit book to leverage larger paychecks for himself and "Hughes"; Irving and his wife conconct a scheme for her to deposit Hughes' share of the payments into a Swiss bank account using a forged passport and the name "Helga R. Hughes".

Irving begins to have increasingly grandiose notions, including alcohol-fueled fantasies about being kidnapped by Hughes's people and taken blindfolded to Nassau, where he is ordered to put the disclosure about Nixon into the work, before being thrown out a window and into a swimming pool. At the same time, his affair with Van Pallandt has continued, and the pressure of keeping of a pretense of fidelity with his wife adds to Irving's stress and paranoia.

Finally, Hughes goes public, via a televised conference call, to deny any knowledge of Irving or the book. As the hoax unravels, Irving finds himself alone in his room "conversing" with Hughes' aide about his role in the affair and the pressures of keeping up the complex web of deceits. Irving is arrested and, as reporters shout questions through the closed window of the police car, scrawls the word "HOAX" on the window, finally admitting the con.

At a press conference, a government spokesman reveals that Irving, Edith Irving, and Suskind all received short jail sentences. An overheard radio report details a sudden wave of legal decisions in favor of Hughes in a short span of time, ambiguously implying that Irving's book had indeed been used as a tool by Hughes to pressure Nixon.

Against a backdrop of archival footage of Nixon, a text overlay claims that the hoax fueled Nixon's paranoia with Hughes, and led directly to the Watergate scandal: The burglars were attempting to recover documents they believed held information of the financial dealings between Nixon and Hughes.

Reception

"The Hoax" had a limited opening in 235 theaters in the United States and Canada on April 6 2007, earning $1,449,320 over the opening weekend. The film later had a wide opening in 1,069 theaters in the United States and Canada on April 20 2007. "The Hoax" showed in the theaters for eight weeks, closing on May 31 2007. The film grossed $7,164,995 in the United States and Canada and $4,607,188 in other territories for a worldwide total of $11,772,183. [cite web | url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=hoax.htm | title=The Hoax (2007) | publisher=Box Office Mojo | accessdate=2007-11-25 ]

At the film review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, "The Hoax" received a 86% Fresh rating from 139 film critics. [cite web | url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hoax/ | title=The Hoax | publisher=Rotten Tomatoes | accessdate=2007-11-25 ] On the similar website Metacritic, the film had a metascore of 70 out of 100 from 37 reviews, considered generally favorable reviews. [cite web | url=http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/hoax | title=Hoax, The (2007): Reviews | publisher=Metacritic | accessdate=2007-11-25 ]

Film critic A. O. Scott of the "New York Times" observed, "The Hoax", with an excellent script by William Wheeler, achieves a similar complexity of tone. It is for the most part a jumpy, suspenseful caper, full of narrow escapes, improbable reversals and complicated intrigue. But it has a sinister, shadowy undertow, an intimation of dread that lingers after Irving’s game is up." [cite news | first=A. O. | last=Scott | authorlink=A. O. Scott | url=http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/movies/06hoax.html | title=True Story of a Fake Story About Hughes (Really) | work=The New York Times | date=2007-04-06 | accessdate=2008-07-31 ]

Accuracy

* see also: ml|Clifford_Irving|Fake autobiography of Howard Hughes|Fake autobiography of Howard Hughes

While the major events portrayed in the film actually occurred, the film takes several dramatic liberties. Irving and Suskind's stealing of Dietrich's manuscript is fictionalized (in real life Irving received a copy of an unpublished manuscript of Dietrich through a third party), as is the mysterious box of documents from an unknown source.

Clifford Irving himself decried the film's characterizations as innacurate, and described the film as a ". . . historically cockeyed story where the main character, almost by coincidence, happens to bear my name. (. . . ) The movie misses the point that the Howard Hughes hoax was a live-action adventure story concocted by two middle-aged hippie expat writers and a Swiss heiress." [ [http://www.cliffordirving.com/movie.php Irving, Clifford. "The New Movie"] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.thehoaxmovie.net Official Website]
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