Plagiarism and journalistic fraud have recently gained significant attention in the media and movies with even songwriting genius Bob Dylan getting lambasted for "borrowing" heavily from Confederate poet laureate Henry Timrod for his latest album. But even more blatant violations like 19-year-old Indian-American Kaavya Viswanathan's multiple sourced plagiarism or Stephen Glass' fabricated reports for The New Republic pale in the wake of Clifford Irving's supreme hoax. In fact, only the Piltdown Man offers a fair comparison.

Conning McGraw-Hill and Life Magazine into believing that he had been granted exclusive access to writing the official biography of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, Irving scammed over half a million dollars advance payment—$100,000 for himself and initially $400,000 supposedly for Hughes (but actually deposited into a Swiss bank account by Clifford's wife). Relying on Hughes' legendary reclusiveness, Irving impeccably forged handwritten notes to convince the publishers of his exclusive deal. Most amazing is how Irving was able to keep his charlatan shell game operating, but eventually he was exposed and served 14 months in prison. Irving wrote about this affair in his 1972 book, The Hoax, which has now been smartly adapted into a film in 2007.

Lasse Hallström's amusing film creates neither heroes nor villains—relying on the available facts to show how a desperate man uses his creative imagination to concoct the most outrageous scam possible and unbelievably come close to making it become a reality before it all unravels. Taking on the lead role of Clifford Irving, Richard Gere embodies the nuances of the character to perfection. Through subtle smirks and eye movement, we sense his manipulative nature but also his sincerity. When immersing heavily into his illusionary research subject, Gere actually channels Howard Hughes himself and in drunken stupors begins interacting with Hughes' security men.

Showing the creative process is most difficult to do on film, yet this ranks among the stronger aspects of the compelling narrative. Frequently, the protagonist is required to account in detail to either provide evidence of his contact with Hughes or to defend himself from marital infidelity. In each instance, Hallström intercuts footage of Irving beginning to recite his narrative with snatches of footage taken out of context but woven into his new and plausible fabrication—just like any fictional writer borrows from reality to create a new artistic canvas.

This marks a welcome return to whimsy for director Hallström, who abandoned the quirky outsiders of What's Eating Gilbert Grape for "feel good" mainstream fare of Chocolat and The Cider House Rules in recent years. Revisiting more interesting terrain once again, The Hoax examines the fascinating world of a consummate con man and a bevy of supporting characters, sustained with a strong supporting cast. Especially notable is Alfred Molina as Irving's easy going co-conspirator research assistant, Richard Suskind. He brings humor and humanity to the script; surely the protagonist can't be all bad when he's implicitly trusted by this good-hearted soul. Other well cast actors include a very focused Hope Davis as publishing agent Andrea Tate, a wary blond Marcia Gay Harden as Irving's Swiss accented wife, and Julie Delpy as Irving's well to do mistress. We never see Howard Hughes other than in archive footage and photos, but that's in keeping with his eccentric character. Besides, moviegoers are now more cognizant of his idiosyncrasies from DiCaprio's depiction in The Aviator, which sets up Irving's most inventive parlor trick involving a helicopter landing on top of the publisher's building.

Given that Clifford Irving is a talented writer, inevitably the first question that comes to mind is why would he ever attempt such a scam—especially one that would be so difficult to carry off? Hallström's film offers a straightforward initial reason of economic desperation. Encouraged by agent Tate about an upcoming book deal destined to set him free from years of rejection slips and mediocrity, Irving goes on a spending spree—only to discover that the break through deal has crashed completely. Faced with certain defaults and bankruptcy, Irving goes into creative overdrive to come up with an alternative. With Howard Hughes dominating that week's news because of TWA litigation and from a "lucky" coincidence experienced in the Bahamas, Irving fashions the outrageous hoax—figuring on success due to his creativity and researching capabilities along with Hughes' personality and political position.