n The Hoax, an energized Richard Gere is nicely cast as con artist/writer Clifford Irving, who hoodwinked his credulous publisher McGraw-Hill into paying six figures for a bogus autobiography of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes. The lively tale, as a classic story of consummate con artistry, is a surprisingly clever entry from Director Lasse Hallström, the Oscar-nomination magnet behind The Cider House Rules, What's Eating Gilbert Grape and Chocolat.

With his snake-oil charm, posh tastes and smirky arrogance, we meet Clifford Irving who is in need of a literary hit to sustain both his lifestyle and his ego, but he lacks the skill and drive to produce it. He'd just written his 1969 book Fake!: The Story of Elmyr De Hory, the Greatest Art Forger of Our Time, but he's financially desperate when his next novel is cancelled (in real life, however, Irving had secured a four-book contract with the publisher).

With Howard Hughes constantly in the news, Irving tells his editor at McGraw-Hill (Hope Davis) and publisher (Stanley Tucci) that he’s been contacted by the crazy hermetic billionaire to be the channel for setting the record on his life straight through a series of candid interviews. It seemed like the perfect crime, as Irving was banking on the idea that the reclusive Hughes, incommunicado for years, would never speak out in public to disclaim the book.

Burying himself in research with long-time researcher Dick Susskind (Alfred Molina) and European artist wife Edith (Marcia Gay Harden), Irving starts to build a mountain of lies, reaching a point where the fraud takes on a life of its own, and even he becomes dangerously close to believing his lies. Only Irving's mistress, Nina van Pallandt (Julie Delpy), seems to realize the danger of his scheme.