Luther at the Movies

And so a writer of mediocre gifts named Clifford Irving decides he will scam McGraw-Hill and Life magazine out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by convincing them that the reclusive and paranoid billionaire Howard Hughes had contacted him and wishes to write his autobiography, with Irving as exclusive amenuensis.

With money-grubbing fact-checking buddy Dick Susskind in tow, Irving steals files from the Pentagon, forges documents, and just generally lies lies lies to everyone in pursuit of fame, fortune, and the perfect convertible.

This is the era of Watergate, and so mendacity is in the air—but little did I know that the fake autobiography of Howard Hughes was, in its own way, what in fact triggered the scandal!

Fun, fascinating, and repellant, The Hoax is a story of American ingenuity gone haywire.

Richard Gere gives probably the best performance of his life as a man for whom truth is something you barter for power. Alfred Molina is his usual buggy self as the manipulative and manipulated friend with just a speckle of conscience. And Marcia Gay Harden, best remembered (at least by me) as the long-suffering spouse of dribble king Jackson Pollock, is quite pathetic as Irving's, well, long-suffering spouse.

In the end, Irving the con artist, who feeds off a man's life and reputation, gets a wholesale lesson in how some people attain their level of success and power. And it ain't because they're too scared to come out and play.

I give The Hoax a hefty 90 Theses.

And now: Off to see Spidey-3!