How can you tell when Clifford Irving is lying? -

- His lips are moving.

I know, I know, it's an old joke applying to men in general, but it certainly fits the case here, with Irving's character, as depicted in this highly enjoyable movie. Everything that comes out of his mouth is complete fabrication - creative fabrication, definitely, but fabrication none the less. I watched nearly the whole film with my jaw semi-dropped; the sheer audacity of this guy is beyond words.

Gere does a great job of portraying Irving. Stanley Tucci also stands out (as always) in the role of a publisher who wants the Howard Hughes book to go to press whether any shred of it is true or not. And Alfred Molina is hilarious as Irving's loose cannon sidekick, who is a bag of nerves from the get go and proceeds to become more and more unglued as the situation goes on. Irving becomes unglued too, in a different kind of way - he dredges up an intricate delusion wherein he believes Hughes and himself to be sort of partners in bringing down Richard Nixon; he uses this delusion to somehow justify, in his own head, the mind-boggling web of lies he is "forced" to construct in order to keep his monumental scam going.

This is the kind of movie where you're not really sure where the line between fact and fiction is drawn, but in the end, that's not so important. The overall atmosphere feels genuine (excellent choice of music as well), and as a viewer you don't feel gyped out of your time or your money while you're leaving the theatre.