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The Hoax (2007)

tomatometer

85

Average Rating: 7.2/10
Reviews Counted: 150
Fresh: 128 | Rotten: 22

The Hoax is an enormously appealing film, thanks to the uniformly excellent performances and Lasse Hallström's zippy direction.

88

Average Rating: 7.5/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 28 | Rotten: 4

The Hoax is an enormously appealing film, thanks to the uniformly excellent performances and Lasse Hallström's zippy direction.

audience

55

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 29,320

My Rating

Movie Info

Director Lasse Hallström offers a brisk account of the scam that shook the literary community with this semi-comic biographical drama starring Richard Gere as the man who sold a fraudulent biography of Howard Hughes to publishing giant McGraw Hill. The year was 1971; the Vietnam War was raging and protestors filled the streets. Clifford Irving (Gere) was a struggling author with bold ambitions, and the determination needed to see them through. When Irving's attempt to sell his latest novel to

R, 1 hr. 55 min.

Drama, Comedy

William Wheeler

Oct 16, 2007

$7.1M

Miramax Films

Cast

All Critics (155) | Top Critics (33) | Fresh (137) | Rotten (22) | DVD (18)

It's hard to get a fix on what Hallstrom had in mind.

December 4, 2007 Full Review Source: New York Daily News | Comment
New York Daily News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Highly entertaining.

September 1, 2007 Full Review Source: USA Today | Comment
USA Today
Top Critic IconTop Critic

I've never been a fan of Richard Gere, but he gives the performance of his career as Clifford Irving.

August 22, 2007 Full Review Source: New York Post | Comments (2)
New York Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

... a serious and amusing black farce that does without obvious heroes or villains ...

May 4, 2007 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Gere persuasively portrays a guy whose confidence blossoms as he makes the discovery that as his lies grow so does the ease with which he tells them.

April 24, 2007 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comment
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Hallström stops well short of cheesy, however, and he never veers from the movie's central fascination: the author's obsessive melding with his subject.

April 20, 2007 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | Comment
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The Hoax is the real thing. It's a breezy, engaging caper. It's like a heist film of the 1970s, but the pilferers are literary men not bank robbers.

February 2, 2009 Full Review Source: Fayetteville Free Weekly | Comment
Fayetteville Free Weekly

Que Irving queira se sentir importante, é compreensível; que sua suposta cinebiografia compartilhe da fraude, nem tanto.

January 16, 2008 Full Review Source: Cinema em Cena | Comment
Cinema em Cena

An amazing story filled with twists, turns, intrigue, betrayals, hallucinations and close calls.

January 16, 2008 Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope | Comment
Laramie Movie Scope

Despite good energy and a source with ample potential, the film is held back by trite ideas.

January 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Window to the Movies | Comment
Window to the Movies

Despite making Clifford Irving into a grubby suburbanite rather than the mischievous Abby Hoffman figure he really was, the film is generally entertaining a good introduction to the greatest literary hoax of all time.

December 4, 2007 Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | Comment
rec.arts.movies.reviews

Lasse Hallstrom directs with a looseness and a snap that has been absent from his recent Oscar-bait productions, and Gere sells Irving's spiel like a con man caught up in his own pitch.

November 30, 2007 Full Review Source: MSN.com | Comment
MSN.com

...breezy, light-hearted...

November 23, 2007 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | Comment
Reel Film Reviews

Very enjoyable.

November 3, 2007 Full Review Source: 3BlackChicks Review | Comment
3BlackChicks Review

At times the film becomes more about Richard Gere and his Oscar grab than about the story... But the bait-and-switch moments as Irving plays the media are the highlights.

October 25, 2007 Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | Comment
7M Pictures

Amoral con artist's true tale will pull adults in.

October 22, 2007 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

A thoroughly enjoyable ride.

October 18, 2007 Full Review Source: Killer Movie Reviews | Comment
Killer Movie Reviews

Richard Gere is at his best in years, here, turning a remorseless lout into a likable underdog.

October 17, 2007 Full Review Source: EURWeb | Comment
EURWeb

Amazing though the story is, it would be nothing without Gere's slippery, insinuating -- if not precisely likable -- performance as Irving.

October 16, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Hoax

enjoyable perfomance by Gere

November 13, 2007
brooklynspo

Super Reviewer

B

July 31, 2010
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb1
Richard C

Super Reviewer

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