RICHARD GERE IS NOT GAY..in this movie

I’ve got to hand it to my father, as he gets older his movie choices seem to get better with age. The last time my father picked a movie for a father/son outing was ‘Breach’. I was pleasantly surprised with that film. I was just happy he didn’t want to go see ‘Wild Hogs’ or something equivalent to that crap. 5 years ago ‘Hogs’ is the movie my father would have picked. My father’s cinematic tastes are not the subject of my post today but the fact he’s picked two in a row have eased my fears about going to movie with dad. Now if I could only get him to keep quite during the movie.

Dad picked ‘The Hoax’ with an unrecognizable Richard Gere playing the role of Clifford Irving. The man who had the biggest story of the century well the biggest hoax of the century. Irving and his friend Richard Suskind (played by Alfred Molina) met while on vacation in Spain and hatched a scheme to write the ‘Hughes’ autobiography. They thought it was the perfect plan. Hughes was a recluse and had been out of the public eye of years. He wouldn’t protest or even know about the story until it was too late.

The hoaxers set about there scheme with forging interviews, handwriting samples and even get access to time-life archives that provide them a wealth of Hughes knowledge. This is where the movie really excels. Richard Gere’s charisma takes over.

Gere is great as much as I hate to admit it. He is perfectly cast as the smoozing schemer who you can actually root for. I haven’t seen this much charm on screen since my mom made me watch an ‘Officer and a Gentleman’. I’ve never been able to watch one of his moives and not just think “hey, that’s Richard Gere” most of the time I just think he’s playing himself. Not much going on with the whole acting thing. Gere doesn’t act, he just looks good on celluloid. This time around he becomes Clifford Irving. For the first time I didn’t just look up there and see Gere.

I recommend seeing this movie if not in the theatre then deffinetly put it in your netflix queue. It’s a facinating story. When millions of dollars are to be made by all parties involved… Who’s not going to believe a story this big.

PS: Great cameo by Tuco himself. Eli Walich is great as Hughes business partner. The old man still has it.