I am constantly amazed by the words "based on a true story."  The words are awfully tricky.  Movies that advertise those five little words walk a very thin line.  The story that they tell needs to be mainly true to life, and yet be appropriately "tweaked" in order to make for an interesting movie.  Go too far in either direction and the filmmakers will never be forgiven.  Richard Gere's latest film to appear on DVD, The Hoax, more often than not manages to negotiate the difficulties successfully. 

The film, directed by Lasse Halström, follows the exploits of Clifford Irving (Richard Gere), as he tries to convince first a publishing company, and then the world, that he is collaborating with Howard Hughes on Hughes' autobiography. 

In reality, Irving is collaborating with a different writer, Richard Suskind (Alfred Molina), and has never met Hughes.  Rather, the two of them have decided to pull the wool over the eyes of their publisher and make some money in the process.  Irving never met Howard Hughes.  Irving was not working with Howard Hughes.  Irving and Suskind did a lot of research on Hughes, including searching the Library of Congress and talking to people that used to work for him, and fabricated much of what they wrote. 

Irving thought he could get away with it because there were so many rumors about Hughes and no one knew what the truth was.  The only thing that was clear was that Hughes was a recluse and never confirmed nor denied stories about himself (one of the reasons Irving thought they could get away with it). 

The movie shows various moments during Irving and Suskind's writing of the book that they could have gotten caught, that they almost got caught, and that they should have gotten caught.  Yet, somehow, until Hughes came out of hiding and gave a phone interview, they never quite did.

Gere is the standout in the film, carrying much of the weight of the picture on his shoulders.  He appears completely believable as the con man Irving, and succeeds in getting the viewer on his side during the film.  Molina, as his compatriot, is perfectly acceptable in the role, but ends up far too often being comedic relief.  One is never quite sure why it is that Irving accepts Suskind as a co-author much less a friend.  Suskind is made out as sniveling, inconstant, and entirely too scared to ever have partaken in such a scam.