Review – The Hoax

Novelist Clifford Irving (Richard Gere) is down on his luck, so he decides to pretend that reclusive millionaire nutjob Howard Hughes has secretly arranged for him to write a biography. In the beginning the scheme sounds simple, but complexities from the grand (what if the real Hughes denounces the whole thing?) to the simple (how do you cash a million-dollar advance made out to “Howard Hughes”?) soon set in. The resulting farce of a plot would be too ridiculous to watch if not for the “true story” (or at least Hollywood-true) angle. Most of the points at which the scheme goes awry should have been obvious at the outset. Thus the characters have no real motivation to do what they do other than the fact that in real life they actually tried it. The resulting tale takes an unanticipated twist or two, but for the most part this is a suspense comedy that is neither funny nor suspenseful. Mildly amusing