MOVIE NIGHT TRAFFIC LIGHT

The Hoax

R

Friday April 6th  2007

Miramax Films (Distributor: Miramax Films)

$50M

Lasse Halstrom (Casanova, Chocolat)

Betsy Beers (Casanova), Mark Gordon (The Day After Tomorrow, Saving Private Ryan), Leslie Holleran (Casanova, Chocolat), Joshua D. Maurer (first Producer credit), Bob Yari (The Illusionist, Crash)

William Wheeler (The Prime Gig), Clifford Irving (Novel: The Hoax)

Richard Gere – Clifford Irving (Shall We Dance, Pretty Woman, Jackal)

Hope Davis – Andrea Tate (The Weatherman, About Schmidt)

Alfred Molina – Dick Susskind (The Da Vinci Code, Spiderman 2)

Marcia Gay Harden – Edith Irving (Mystic River, Space Cowboys)

Richard Gere in The Hoax, which revisits one of the biggest scams of our time and has you wondering once again– just how in the world did Richard Gere ever marry Cindy Crawford? 

Back in the early 70’s, Clifford Irving made his living by writing books. The movie The Hoax is about real events from back them and how Clifford became one of histories most notorious con men. Richard Gere plays Clifford Irving and the movie begins when he looses a major book deal with McGraw Hill Publishing. Desperate because he’s broke and out of options, he promises McGraw Hill the book of the 20th Century. Now all he has to do is figure out what he’s going to write about. Unbelievably, he decides to tell everyone that the reclusive Howard Hughes has agreed to let Clifford Irving write his autobiography. Since Howard Hughes hasn’t spoken to the press in 15 years, he thinks no on will figure out his scam. To convince everyone the charade is for real, he fakes hand written letters from Howard, he steals secret documents and even sets up a meeting with Howard and McGraw Hill that conveniently never happens. His writing partner, played by Alfred Molina, is paranoid someone is going to discover the truth. They had no idea that Howard Hughes would be the one to confront them and end up using the scam to save his airlines and spark the Watergate scandal.

Richard Gere with bad hair pretending to know a freaky recluse all back in the 70's...how could any of that be good? Well, it is! Although it's not clear if any of the "facts" being portrayed are fact or just an even bigger hoax, the story is really intersting to watch. How can you not cheer for a con man who has the guts to stand up and announce to the world his big plan when he actually has no idea what he's doing. That's even better than watching a super hero. And to top it all off, the story all fits together and intrigues the audience right up to the end.

On the Movie Night Traffic Light on a scale of GREEN meaning “Go – it’s a must see”, YELLOW meaning “Caution – it’s okay” and RED meaning “No - stop don’t do it."

We rate The Hoax GREEN.  Go – this one is worth checking out.