In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, director of Swedish descent Lasse Hallström, proved he was capable of more than just directing a bunch of ABBA music videos, when he delivered some successful Swedish dramas and the intense What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. His 1999 film, The Cider House Rules, based on a John Irving novel was a decent drama with similar acting performances. However, the film starring Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron and Michael Caine, also set in motion Hallström’s newly found tendency to direct tame and prudent dramas, usually based on novels akin. His An Unfinished Life was kept on the shelves for over two years (usually the best thing to do with a film starring J-Lo anyway) and Hallströms previous endeavour, Casanova, was just not enticing and funny enough to really enthral an audience.

It came as a surprise that The Hoax, starring Richard Gere, Marcia Gay Harden and Alfred Molina, still was a rather safe and harmless film, yet lacked the uninspired touch of Hallströms preceding films. Based on the book with the same name by Clifford Irving, The Hoax focuses on one of the biggest scams of American literary history. Gere plays Irving, an aspiring writer who is about to make the publishing deal of the century, but eventually sees his efforts debunked as the boss of the publishing company gives a big nay on the novel that is supposed to launch Irving’s career as a novelist.

Irving, determined to come up with an idea to set the record straight, comes up with a brilliant plan, helped by his friend and fellow-writer Dick Susskind (Molina). He forges the handwriting of eccentric multi-billionaire Howard Hughes and convinces the publishing company he was appointed by Hughes to write his biography. When the publisher is convinced his statements are genuine (it takes just some more fake exhibits to accomplish this), Irving and Susskind start to document the fake biography and shift between setting up phoney appointments and scheming to hand in prove of contact with Hughes.

The plot is very reminiscent of Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can, in which Leonardo DiCaprio portrayed professional fraud Frank Abignail who led people to believe he was a pilot, a lawyer and a doctor. Spielberg’s movie was a lot quicker and wittier than Hallström’s. So, the comparison only goes as far as the films’ coinciding plots. With The Hoax, Hallström still plays it safe, but this is the type of film you can hardly have anything against. Gere has performed more uninspiringly and Molina’s acting is as appealing as ever. Marcia Gay Harden’s role as Irving’s German wife, on the other hand is rather dull and superfluous and her side plot slows down the pace.

Hallströms could have made more clever decisions plotwise by centring more on how the Irving-Hughes scam came about. Even the film’s prologue, that shows most of it is told in flash-backs, somewhat steals the film’s thunder storywise and therefore robs it from suspense. The Hoax turns out to be Hallströms most thrilling film in years. This is not necessarily a good thing, but compared to his recent films The Hoax is a revelation, that somewhat regains the faith in Hallström future career. Furthermore, the based-on-a-true-story component is part of the charm and releases the director from dullness and utter boredom.

Directed by: Lasse Hallström
Starring: Richard Gere, Alfred Molina, Marcia Gay Harden, Stanley Tucci and Julie Delpy
Runtime: 115’
Official Website
Release Dates: US: 20 April 2007, The Netherlands: 24 May 2007

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