Director Lasse Hallstrom and screenwriter William Wheeler (working from Irving’s memoir) adapt Irving's memoir of the scam with many fictionalized events for cinematic effect, creating a subplot that suggests that Hughes was a puppetmaster pulling Irving's strings.

The film, shot by Oliver Stapleton, is glossy and slick, and Gere, his hair cut and lightened like the real Irving, delivers a silver-tongued performance of an unsavory figure. Alfred Molina is equally well cast as Dick Susskind. But the secondary cast - Hope Davis, Marcia Gay Harden, Stanley Tucci, Julie Delpy and Eli Wallach - are less charismatic, but fun to watch nonetheless.