May 6, 2007 2:29 PM

Movie Recommendation: The Hoax

Howard Hughes, Richard Nixon and Clifford Irving form the three points of what was a Bermuda Triangle of utter insanity in the early 1970s, and the movie The Hoax does a terrific job of taking you into the morass. The film is based on the true story of Irving's faked biography of Hughes - a biography whose hype fueled Watergate-era paranoia inside the Nixon White House. Richard Gere is superb as Irving, as is Alfred Molina as Irving's partner, Dick Suskind. What's striking is how the movie suggests Hughes, Nixon and Irving share similar paranoid schizophrenia - whether it's Hughes hermit-like behavior, Nixon's talking to paintings in the White House, or Irving's fear of being hunted by Hughes' henchmen. It's hard to believe The Hoax actually happened - but it did, and this movie is definitely worth the ride.