The Hoax - 4/5

The latest from director Lasse Hallstrom (Chocolat, The Shipping News) is the true story of struggling writer Clifford Irving who almost succeeded in selling the authorised biography of elusive billionaire Howard Hughes, despite never had had any contact with him.

The film relies on the audience having a certain amount of background knowledge about Hughes (and also Nixon and Watergate) and is therefore probably helped by coming just a couple of years after Scorcese's biopic of Hughes The Aviator. Irving himself banked on Hughes, famously reclusive and facing huge lawsuits from shareholders, not apearring publically to refute the book. It was a gamble he lost when Hughes held a telephone press-conference to deny any involvement.

So, while lacking any will he won't he tension, it draws you in through Hallstrom's keeping things moving at a fair old pace and never letting the action drag, but mainly by a great performance from Richard Gere as Irving. After having sleep-walked through most of his romantic-lead-for-the-over-40s roles of the last decade. Throwing his hat into the ring early in next year's Oscar race, he gives us a compelling portrayal of a charismatic man impulsively ruled by his self-destructive tendancies leading to his inevitable downfall both in his lies and his extra-marital affair with Julie Delpy.

Gere is ably supported by Alfred Molina as his ultra-nervous researcher who gets sucked into Irving's schemes and his come-uppance. There also good turns from the ever-watchable Hope Davis and Stanley Tucci as the beguiled publishers. Only Marcia Gay Harden, saddled with European accent duties, really struggles, failing to make Irving's wife likeable enough for some scenes to pay off.

The Nixon-Watergate subplot at times feels under-explained and at others incredible - did this hoax really prompt the Watergate break-ins, did Hughes really secretly supply Irving with information in order to rattle Nixon into doing what he wanted. To be honest, I don't know enough of the real history to judge. However, by the end of the film it really doesn't matter. The point is that, in the film at least, Irving believed this and as the movie becomes increasingly sucked into the point of view of a man who is obviously increasingly losing his grip on reality. We begin to enter territory which is more Confessions of a Dangerous Mind than Catch Me if You Can. It does get a bit messy and confused, but it is never less than compelling and fascinating and that is largely down to Gere.