The Imposter: Movie Review

The Imposter: Movie Review

Cast: Frederic Bourdin, Carey Gibson, Beverly Dollarhide, Bryan Gibson
Director: Bart Layton

This documentary tore up the New Zealand Film Festival this year, with those who saw it raving about it. And now, those of us a bit slower on the hype bandwagon get to see what the fuss is all about.

Crikey, it's well worth a watch as well.

Director Bart Layton's taken the 1997 case of Frederic Bourdin, a serial chameleon, whose MO is to take on the lives of missing children. In 97, Bourdin decided to take on the persona of a missing teenager, Nicholas Barclay, who'd gone missing from his Texas home.

Only at the time, Bourdin was in Spain, and managed to persuade the authorities that Barclay had been kidnapped by the military and trafficked abroad....

Consequently, Barclay's family welcomed him into their home and believed him to be back in their lives....but that's when the alarm bells began to ring.

The Imposter is a superlative documentary, a richly woven tale which grabs you from the minute you read the premise to how it spools out on screen.

Every twist and turn has you screaming "WTF" and "How is that even possible" for a 23 year old man to inveigle his way into a family's life and to tell such barefaced and outrageous lies to get into their lives. But the real kick in the piece comes as the documentary begins to truly show its hand - and to reveal any more of that is to totally destroy the experience.

Using recreations, re-enactments and interviews from Bourdin and Barclay's family, Layton's pulled together an utterly slick and compelling piece which grips you in its vice and doesn't let go throughout its 90 minutes duration. He's employed some clever narrative techniques as well which keep you engaged as the story is told.

But, here's the thing about The Imposter - it's jaw dropping in its execution as the mystery really starts to set in. Everything in you questions how the family could believe that it's their child, how the authorities could be taken in and how Bourdin had the audacity to get as far as he did. Even Bourdin himself confesses, he never thought he'd get as far as he did - given the missing boy was a blonde haired blue eyed all American kid - and he was a brown eyed, half Algerian/ French dark haired man. He's got Keyser Soze like tendencies as he looks around him, initially when found by authorities to absorb his surroundings to his own benefit.

Layton manages to provide some answers about why Bourdin does what he does and delves a little into the psyche of the chameleon, but even more than that, you don't quite get the resolution on why the family goes along with it all. There are suspicions as this Pandora's box is opened wide, but this slickly put together piece has the cumulative effect of picking you up, spinning you around in your seat and plonking you back down puzzled, incredulous and confused as to how it may end.

Placing into sharp focus the closed minds of some Americans (one family member when told Nicholas was in Spain says "Isn't that, like, across the country?") this tonally deft piece of film-making demands you see it. It's a contender for one of the films of the year - already - and it's an utter must see for its story alone, as well as its high production values.

Compelling, riveting and sensational, it's one of the smartest films of 2013 - narratively rich and technically impressive, it raises the bar for future documentaries by being simple, yet sleek and never losing focus of what it's doing.

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