THE HOAX: intriguing drama hobbled by its own honesty

Reading the blurb for THE HOAX on the back cover of the dvd case does not encourage the production of a mouthful of anticipatory drool.

There’s little suggestion of action or excitement in the tagline “The unbelievably true story of the man who almost pulled off the biggest literary con of the 20^th century.”

The cinematic re-enactment of a literary con is not the sort of subject matter which lends itself to blockbuster box office business; and promoting it by giving away the ending before we’ve even seen the film doesn’t really help matters.

It’s not a great recipe for success.

If the makers of THE HOAX had not been so insistent on naked honesty in the promotion of their film it might have done a little better on its 2006 cinematic release. It’s not exactly an undiscovered gem but the story it tells is an interesting footnote in 1970s American history.

It concerns the legendary Howard Hughes, the eccentric billionaire who was introduced to a whole new generation of filmgoers by 'The Aviator,' and it’s doubtful that THE HOAX would have got made without that Leonardo DiCaprio-led rekindling of interest in Hughes.

DiCaprio’s film concludes its depiction of Hughes’ life in the late 1940s while he was still a public figure. THE HOAX focuses on the early 1970s when Hughes had become an enigmatic legend unseen by anyone for almost fifteen years.

This reluctance to show himself, and the myriad rumours about his bizarre behaviour which had sprung up as a consequence, are seized on by struggling author Clifford Irving (Richard Gere) and spun into an audacious scheme to make himself rich and famous.

In the fall of 1971 Irving marches into the New York offices of a respected publisher and announces that Hughes has commissioned him to co-write his official autobiography. He even produces letters signed by Hughes to support his claim.

Handwriting experts confirm the correspondence is genuine, and the publishing executives allow their visions of enormous sales (“This book will sell more copies than the Bible!” proclaims one) to override their skepticism that Hughes would choose this nobody to write his life story.

They quickly capitulate to Irving’s demands for a million dollar advance, and for the next few months he and collaborator Dick Suskind (Alfred Molina) lead the publishers and Life magazine on a merry dance as the pair invent Hughes story as they imagine he would have told it in his own words.

And as the tagline has already revealed, they almost pull it off.

It is difficult now to grasp the hold that Hughes had on the public imagination in the 1970s. Although unseen he remained a powerful presence in American life through his control and manipulation of a large number of big companies, many of which were household names.

His enormous wealth, hermit-like lifestyle and weird personal habits added to the mystique, and Clifford skilfully manipulated that mystery to make his project appear credible.

Gere is impressively understated as the ambitious author willing to go to any lengths to achieve success. Irving is not a showy part. He’s an ordinary looking guy who just happens to have a special talent for making the tallest tales sound plausible to otherwise intelligent and hardnosed business people.

Molina provides the comic relief as the nervy sidekick who allows himself to be swept along by Irving’s fantasy, and there’s an entertaining cameo by veteran actor Eli Wallach as Hughes’ longtime right hand man Noah Dietrich.

Director Lasse Hallstrom ('Chocolat,' 'The Cider House Rules') does an excellent job in wringing every last drop of drama out of what is not really a very dramatic story, and leaves us wanting to know more about Hughes and Irving. The DVD extras are, unfortunately, not the place to look for that information.

The “Making of” featurette talks too much about the film and too little about the real life people portrayed in the story, while the interview with Mike Wallace reminiscing about his “60 Minutes” interview with Irving in 1971 teases with some clips but never properly delivers.

Interesting in a low key way, THE HOAX is not essential viewing but it is most definitely worth the cost of an overnight rental.