The Hoax
User Score
7.3 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 18 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 18
  3. Negative: 1 out of 18

Review this movie

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. LeoTs3181983
    Sep 6, 2010
    10
    The Hoax is a great movie.It's just a little silly,however. But Richard Gere is great. It's one of his best movies. I highly recommend it:So don't miss it.
  2. MarcK.
    May 9, 2007
    6
    The acting's very good, but the plot is extremely slow moving. At least another 15 minutes or so could have been cut, which would have made it a much more enjoyable film experience.
  3. BillyS.
    Apr 26, 2007
    8
    I was 19 when the Clifford Irving-Howard Hughes biography was all over the news and I remember thinking at the time what the big deal was. Somebody wrote a book about an eccentric hermit billionaire. So what? After seeing The Hoax I wished I'd have put down the joint and paid more attention. Lasse Halstrom has made his most entertaining movie since What's Eating Gilbert Grape with a true story thats immensely intriguing, very funny and rich in characters. I am not a Richard Gere fan but I will say this is the best role of his career. He plays Clifford Irving in all his desperate glory and not once do you see Richard Gere the movie star! This could be the one that gets him an Oscar nomination next January, no kidding, he's that good! The whole cast is that good. Alfred Molina, Hope Davis and Marcia Gay Harden all shine in very meaty roles and the credits are all top notch, especially Carter Burwell's score with a spot-on perfect song over the end credits. The Hoax is a great story made into a good well balanced movie that leaves you hoping for a sequel, not for The Hoax, but for The Aviator! Scorsese and DiCaprio doing the Howard Hughes the way this movie, and everyone alive, really remembers him!!… Expand
  4. SweetTooth
    Apr 22, 2007
    9
    This is a terrific film crafted by professionals who know what they are doing and clearly love doing it. When movie screens are blanketed with nonsense like 300 and Pathfinder, it is a relief and a joy to behold a film that artfully tells a good tale. This is a real winner that you will find worthy of both your time and your money.
  5. BilB.
    Apr 20, 2007
    5
    I was not impressed with either the acting nor the story. Although I did find it entertaining, I would not recommend paying box office prices to see The Hoax, wait for it on DVD and see it for $1.99 from your local video store.
  6. Luke
    Apr 13, 2007
    3
    Gere is okay, but between the brain-dead Hughes, the cut-throat publishers, and the lying novelist and his forger wife, there is absolutely no one in the movie to care about or root for. Come on, Hollywood, give us movies with people of substance with decent values, not this drek. I found myself wishing all the characters would die an ignoble death.

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
70 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 37 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 37
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 37
  3. Negative: 1 out of 37
  1. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Richard James Havis
    80
    Entertaining and piquant. The film does possess some of the bittersweet qualities that usually mark Hallstrom's films, but it's generally a tougher, more incisive work that ranks as one of his best.
  2. Variety
    Reviewed by: Deborah Young
    80
    Lasse Hallstrom's breezy, fast-paced, somewhat loose-ended account of how he (Irving) did it offers a surprisingly layered vehicle for a maniacally conniving Richard Gere, backed up by a superb Alfred Molina as his accomplice.
    Read full review
  3. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    70
    The movie is too long (nearly two hours), but the acting--Gere, Molina, the peerlessly edgy Hope Davis, Marcia Gay Harden as Irving's loopy Swiss-German painter wife--keeps you giggling. And the story has something up its sleeve--a dream finish.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »