This afternoon my wife and I went to Tinseltown to see "The Hoax". It's an excellent movie based on the controversial true story. Clifford Irving (Richard Gere) was a failed writer in the 1970s who couldn't sell a book to save his life. That is, until he claimed reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes dictated his life to him, which was, of course, a flat-out lie. As The Autobiography of Howard Hughes got published and became an instant hit, Irving had to continue to spin an increasingly convoluted web of lies to prove his book was authentic. I followed the story in the early 1970's while a student at the University of Oregon. The movie has as a back drop Watergate and the Vietnam war. The movie has a good feel for the times and is a very fascinating story that really happened. I enjoyed the New York publishing business's aspect of the movie. I give it *****. After the movie I ask my wife why the movie had not received more hype since I thought it was "Best Picture" material and she said the movie had limited appeal to mostly "Older folks" like me. I did notice that the audience at our showing was made up almost exclusively of people in their 50's & 60"s who were alive in the early 1970's. Go see it you will like it! To read more about the movie click on the title for a link to the IMDB page for the movie.
