Ann and I spent part of our Date Night this week at the movies and watched this based-on-a-true-story movie starring Richard Gere and Alfred Molina. It is the story of Clifford Irving's bogus biography of Howard Hughes and how he deceived the book publishing business in the early 1970s.
I found the movie to be pretty entertaining and intriguing. I thought that Gere and Molina made the characters real and personable. I was surprised by a gratuitous nude scene which contributed nothing to the story line and should not have been included. I think that one message from the film is that people are often conditioned by their environment and their greed to believe a lie and embrace a fantasy. I thought that the movie presented a scathing commentary on the greed of McGraw Hill publishing and Life magazine. It also showed how a man with no moral compass acts in the face of rejection.
On a scale of 10 I give this movie ★★★★★★
I haven't seen Hoax yet but if you are intrigued with the characters it portrays, check out "F for Fake," one of Orson Welles' final films, which features the real life Clifford Irving and the notorious art forger Elmyr who taught him so much of the art of charlatanry. It's a very amusing and innovative film for its time, though not necessarily so famous as Welles' earlier works like Citizen Kane.
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