The Hoax review

Richard Gere delivers his best performance in years in Lasse Hallstrom's The Hoax. It's the true story of Clifford Irving, who caused a sensation in the early 1970s when he arrived at New York's leading publishing houses with the claim that he had been sanctioned to write reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes' autobiography.

Irving was a failed writer at the time, but one with enough nous and charm to sell his outlandish tale. Receiving a huge advance for the book, he then proceeded to concoct an imaginary tale alongside his co-writer Dick Susskind (Alfred Molina). Able to come up with appropriate answers for the most difficult of questions, the two became the toast of the publishing world.

But inevitably cracks began to appear: a fantasist and a narcissist, Irving became too close to his subject (despite never meeting him), taking on part of his demeanour. When Hughes himself broke his hermit-like existence to reveal in an interview that the whole thing was a scam, the consequences for Irving and his cohorts were severe.

Hallstrom does an excellent job in bringing to life a potentially dry subject, and his film calls to mind classic 70s cinema a la Milos Forman or Alan J Pakula. Attention to detail in the costume and set design departments all add to the authenticity of the affair.

But it's Gere's Irving who steals the show with a mixture of conviction, connivance and weakness. A womaniser who vastly over-inflated his own value doesn't sound like an intriguing central character, but Gere gives Irving plenty of layers so that when his world tumbles around him, it is completely convincing. There's an old-fashioned and pleasing feel to this fascinating story, and it comes highly recommended.

Paul Hurley