The Hoax - A-

In theatres. Rated R. 115 minutes.

Naming is everything. Take Clifford Irving, con artist, liar, and (allegedly) phenomenal writer. In 1971 he conned McGraw Hill into believing he was the authorized biographer for Howard Hughes. Through the use of forged documents and ludicrously absurd tales he bilked the publishers out of a one million dollar advance. Eventually it cost him his wife, his researcher and only friend, his lover, 20 months in prison, 1.3 million dollars, and any hope of being taken seriously as an author. Still, in his last con, he called his memoir detailing the sordid affair “The Hoax,” as if it were a joke that went too far, and The Hoax it remains.

A dynamite Richard Gere (Yanks) stars as Clifford Irving. I’ve never been a huge Gere fan, but he is Oscar-caliber here. The charisma, intelligence, and balls it takes to even attempt a con of this magnitude is mesmerizing, and Gere brings all that and more. While never a sympathetic character, Carter is compelling—daring you to root for him to pull it off. Somehow the stealing and infidelity are overlooked in the excitement of lie after dizzying lie. It’s not until he blackmails his best friend and collaborator Dick Susskind (Alfred Molina, Spider-Man 2) that the awful truth you knew but ignored comes home. Irving is a lying, self-centered scumbag.

This is a fascinating piece of history that I was completely unaware of, drawing lines between Hughes and a just pre-Water Gate Nixon, and in so doing straddling two of the most powerful, idiosyncratic, and paranoid men of the 20th Century. It’s everything historical pics should be: true, funny, enthralling, strange, and immanently relevant. While Catch Me if You Can (2002) and Shattered Glass (2003) both recently covered similar ground, The Hoax is a bigger operator at every level and my favorite of the three. The best film I’ve seen in the theatre this year. A-