70
Metascore
37 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 91Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumGere is terrific at suggesting the kind of addictive cocktail of excitement, panic, chutzpah, creativity, and naked hunger for fame and megabucks that might inspire such big, fat lies.
- 90NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenComedy and suspense, satire and shame are all mashed together--with breezy confidence.
- 88Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversGere gives 'em the old razzle-dazzle with his roguish charm and sharp comic timing. The surprise is the unexpected feeling he brings to this challenging role.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterRichard James HavisThe Hollywood ReporterRichard James HavisEntertaining and piquant. The film does possess some of the bittersweet qualities that usually mark Hallstrom's films, but it's generally a tougher, more incisive work that ranks as one of his best.
- 80VarietyDeborah YoungVarietyDeborah YoungLasse Hallstrom's breezy, fast-paced, somewhat loose-ended account of how he (Irving) did it offers a surprisingly layered vehicle for a maniacally conniving Richard Gere, backed up by a superb Alfred Molina as his accomplice.
- 78Austin ChronicleAustin ChronicleThe Hoax isn't Gere’s best movie (that honor will always and forever belong to "Days of Heaven"), but it might feature his best performance.
- 70New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinThe movie is too long (nearly two hours), but the acting--Gere, Molina, the peerlessly edgy Hope Davis, Marcia Gay Harden as Irving's loopy Swiss-German painter wife--keeps you giggling. And the story has something up its sleeve--a dream finish.
- 70The New YorkerAnthony LaneThe New YorkerAnthony LaneTheir kinship (Gere/Molina)--wholly unsexual yet lit, like that of Martin and Lewis, with an exasperated love--is the beacon of the movie, and it just about survives the lengthening shadows of the later scenes.
- 63ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliAs a movie, The Hoax isn't a fraud but it's not the real deal, either.
- 60Village VoiceVillage VoiceTo its credit, The Hoax isn't glib--it doesn't chalk up Irving's moral vacuum to anything a bad mommy or daddy did. But there's no other point of view either; the film suffers a fatal equivocation over whether to frame him as a prankster or an American tragedy.