Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on April 2011

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Fictionalized, “based on” potboiler about writer/con artist Clifford Irving’s audacious fake autobiography of Howard Hughes in the early ’70s. Irving (an antsy Richard Gere) and his researcher Dick Susskind (the always excellent Alfred Molina) almost pulled it off, convincing the McGraw Hill brass that their faked interviews with the reclusive billionaire industrialist had actually taken place. They were brought down just days before publication when the real Hughes denounced them in an on-air phone interview. It’s no Catch Me If You Can, but a mildly intriguing couple of hours nonetheless.