The Hoax

Here we have a film dramatisation of actual events as originally related in Clifford Irving’s book about his involvement in the origin and attempted publication of an unauthorised biography of the reclusive businessman Howard Hughes. Being an adaptation of a literary work, one feels that the filmakers’ job is somehow easier because of their opportunity to use the literary version as a point of reference. Whether this is true or not, the story evolves in a succinct fashion thanks to an efficient and clear tone. Events are such that the the lead role of Irving is demanding and calls for a considered portrayal which Richard Gere delivers. This is especially gratifying as Irving is a reasonably complex individual who places himself at the centre of an extraordinary sequence of events.

Also assisting in the efficiency of the storytelling process is some neat editing and clever scripting. For example, the telegrams that are used to communicate between Irving and his publisher also slickly fill in plot points. An effective theme tune with a suitably enigmatic motif played on a harpsichord is played intermittently, and over the closing credits, and serves to help unify proceedings as well as creating a mood. At other times, and with varying degrees of success, music of the time (1970's) is used to situate the timeperiod in the mind of the audience, to which end we are also shown TV advertisements of the period. Vietnam is a topical issue that is also flagged on a few occasions, most memorably when Gere and his business partner come across a protest march.

Irving is demonstrably an imaginative fabulist with a talent for fabrication that he uses to create opportunities for himself. However, his gift for deception is a double-edged sword, and the audience begin to wonder whether he will successfully negotiate the finely-balanced artifice that he has wrought, and survive his existence on the increasingly indistinct boundary between fact and fiction. Insofar as we get a sense of his unrecognised talent, Irving is something of a tragic figure whose true ability is cloaked in a secrecy and intrigue necessary for his survival. The film shows us that, in the surreal and paranoid world of 1970's America, where evidence of the hippie counterculture lingers and conspiracy theories abound - to which even the American President is susceptible - there is much to parallel Irving’s own machinations. In some of the episodes that reflect this pervasive sense of unease and paranoia, special effects are used, albeit minimally, and they are also used elsewhere to provide an insight into Irving’s state of mind regarding his assumed literary project.

The consequences of Irving's project on his personal life are also explored, and he does not spare himself from criticism, providing an insight into his honorable and dishonorable behaviour equally. The figure of Howard Hughes looms large and we learn a little of his very private life, but the the focus here is on Hughes' political and commercial manoeuvring, and his relationship with Nixon in particular. The playing out of this three-way dynamic between author, president, and businessman, is entertaining, subtly plotted and occasionally revelatory.

Archive h☼me