The Hoax

Hello, I'm Amber 1 and this is bbclearningenglish.com.
　　In Entertainment today, we listen to a review of a new film called 'The Hoax 2'.
　　(A hoax is a deception 3 – a trick to make people believe something is true whenit is not.)'The Hoax' is based on a true story – how, in 1971, a struggling writer calledClifford Irving persuaded a leading American publishing house that he hadobtained a series of unprecedented 4 interviews with the ultra-reclusive,immensely powerful, superstar billionaire Howard Hughes and that he wassitting on the book of the century – Howard Hughes's memoirs 5. There was ahuge amount of interest in the book because Howard Hughes was also aHollywood producer, aviator 6, industrialist 7 and playboy and he had been arecluse for 15 years. A million-dollar deal was struck and the book printingbegan. But then, Howard Hughes broke his silence to reveal that he'd nevereven heard of Clifford Irving, and that the book was not genuine – it was 'afake'!
　　Clifford Irving is played by the actor Richard Gere, who has a star track recordfor playing attractive but extremely dishonest characters. Critics agree thatGere is great, and so is his co-star, Alfred Molina, but what about the rest ofthe movie?
　　Here's the film critic Nigel Andrews who says the film is fairly clever andconvincing – he says 'this is the film that you almost think does the trick, butdoesn't quite!' If something 'does the trick', it has the necessary or desiredeffect. He says there are some 'spurious' – some not genuine - thingshappening in the film, 'to amp it up' – to amplify 8 the story, to make it make itmore exciting and meaningful than it really is.
　　As you listen, try to catch any of the ways the film links to – is 'plugged into'
　　the Zeitgeist, the ideas of a particular time and place – in this film – that'sAmerica in the 1970s.
　　Nigel Andrews'This is the film that you almost think does the trick, but doesn't quite! There are a whole lotof specious 9 and rather spurious attempts to amp it up into a kind of greater resonance 10 thanarguably the particular story has. I mean, for instance, it's plugged into the WatergateZeitgeist in order to give an extra charge of kind of epochal paranoia 12 because we're in the 70s.
　　And there's a whole lot of stuff with sort of secret agents and so on, which doesn't quite addup. The strength is Richard Gere's performance.'
　　Amber:       So Nigel Andrews says 'The Hoax' is plugged into 'Watergate', a hugepolitical scandal, and to the fears and 'paranoia' of the time, of the 'epoch 11'. Buthe says that none of this makes the film believable or convincing - he says it'doesn't quite add up', it doesn't quite make sense.
　　Listen again.
　　Nigel Andrews'This is the film that you almost think does the trick, but doesn't quite! There are a whole lotof specious and rather spurious attempts to amp it up into a kind of greater resonance thanarguably the particular story has. I mean, for instance, it's plugged into the WatergateZeitgeist in order to give an extra charge of kind of epochal paranoia because we're in the 70s.
　　And there's a whole lot of stuff with sort of secret agents and so on, which doesn't quite addup. The strength is Richard Gere's performance.'
　　Amber:  Nigel Andrews goes on to say that the film is almost too accurate when itcomes to creating the 1970s – it's like watching 'a museum record' he says!
　　Then he jokes about how someone – a very clever researcher using the internet– has noticed … what?
　　Nigel Andrews'I think he doesn't get it wrong – I think that's part of the problem! I think it's like watching amuseum record of what someone thinks is the 1970s and you can't fault the individual details.
　　Some absolutely ingenious burrower 13 into the internet exposed the fact that every time Gereand Molina go into town, the same cars are parked in the same place! And it has that feel!'
　　Amber:  So there are the same 1970s cars parked in the same place throughout differentscenes – and this makes the film seem a little stiff, like a 'museum record'.
　　Nigel Andrews'I think he doesn't get it wrong – I think that's part of the problem! I think it's like watching amuseum record of what someone thinks is the 1970s and you can't fault the individual details.
　　Some absolutely ingenious burrower into the internet exposed the fact that every time Gereand Molina go into town, the same cars are parked in the same place! And it has that feel!'
　　Amber:  Now let's recap the language we focussed on.
　　a hoax – a deceptionif something 'does the trick', it has the necessary or desired effect 'to amp it up' – to amplify something, to make something more exciting andmeaningful than it really isthe Zeitgeist - the ideas of a particular time and placeto add up – to make sense .