Review of The Hoax (2007) by Dawdlingpoet — 25 Nov 2021

This movie was a bit too slow and winding mid-way through, you forget that the events portrayed only took place over a shortish amount of time. I was a bit put off by the fact that to be honest, I struggled to think why I wouldn't want Cliffords deceit to be discovered, although it was somewhat amusing to see the business heads sweat a bit as they question his legitimacy for different reasons at different times in the movie - its interesting to see the extent to which they buy into Clifford and what he offers them but Clifford himself as a character I found not so likable, infact it was only really about three quarters of the way into the movie when things (plot wise) start to really speed up that I found his character more interesting as he seems to suffer some delusions and you question where the line is between reality and fabrication - this is what interested me the most as it really comes to a head with Clifford believing things that may be entirely in his own mind, making you question his sanity.The question is, is he a genius, I suppose in a sense as Hughes was, that offered something that was, it seems, so close to the presumed truth that those close to him rubber stamped its authenticity?, or is he nothing but a money grabbing deluded greedy guts? thats the main question asked by the movie and I think if you watch it in full, you may question things - I was certainly impressed by some of the means that those involved in writing 'project Octavia' (the name given to this top secret book deal) had to go to, to prolong the charade. There's one scene where the building the publishers is based in, has to rip out their carpets on the supposed request of Howard Hughes and they pain a helipad on the roof of their building, according to his specific request - some staff are stood on the roof with baited breath as a helicopter appears in the distance - you'll have to watch the movie to see what happens from that point on though - whether Clifford can explain it away if the helicopter doesn't land or how they deal with who they see if it does.

Back to the characters and I felt that one of the other main characters apart from Clifford, that being Albert who's the other key person that helps Clifford in creating the manuscript, he's the character that questions things a bit more and that has more of a moral basis, although when things look good for them in terms of them getting the money and getting away with their plan, he doesn't have too many issues but receiving certain information about who could be hurt by the details that come out about Mr. Hughes life, his conscience does come into play and its perhaps interesting to see how the two characters interact - Albert being quite a jittery person who doesn't deal so well under pressure but Clifford is more calm and collected and able to explain away that which is necessary. The key issue of deceiving others isn't just reflected in the attempt to flog a fake autobiography manuscript but also the personal issue of Cliffords faithfulness as his wife has concerns with him and Albert being away from home for a while working on 'project Octavia', having worked on his relationship after issues in the past - there is the inevitable scene where his wife confronts him, though that also adds, in a way, to the dislike of his character.

The movie is based on real events, which makes it a more interesting story, or a story about a story I guess you could say, so yeah how accurate the story is about the people trying to sell a fake story - yup that makes my head hurt lol. I did think that Richard Gere was a good choice to portray Clifford as he has that cool and collected look about him and watching the scenes where he got into character to record his fake supposed interviews/recordings with Howard Hughes, I thought he took on Mr Hughes' character in both somewhat looking the part and also talking the part - also the movie features some recordings and TV footage of Mr. Hughes (yes somehow I feel I should refer to him as Mr. Hughes), which may be of interest to those with a fascination of him. I suppose in some ways, he's the American version of Lord Lucan, who has supposedly been in hiding or otherwise disappeared many years ago - people who have a great wealth and/or a particularly interesting background and who seem to vanish off the map definitely interest the public, hence why such an autobiography would be such a 'hot item' in the publishing world. All in all, I didn't think a great deal of the movie at first but by the end of it, I changed my mind and thought it was quite good. Unless this is a subject that particularly interests you, this might not be specifically worth seeking out but I thought it was intriguing, knowing its based on real events and with some decent performances. Its not exactly an action packed movie but Gere's performance pulls it off and seeing what happened as the story picked up pace, made it a pretty decent watch at the end of the day.