The Imposter

When you desperately want to be someone else

The Imposter

trailer

filmOA | blu-ray

There are believable stories and unbelievable stories. This is one of the unbelievable ones. Really, really unbelievable. And if this had been a work of fiction, you’d say: yeah right. Good story. But this is a documentary. A brilliantly crafted film that documents the unbelievable (real) story of Nicolas Barclay. Well, not really Nicolas Barclay.

I’ll go into this review not trying to reveal too much about the story. It’s most fun to watch without knowing too much about it in advance. The Imposter is a story told by a young man pretending to be someone else. But not just someone he made up. Or someone in the same city or country. No, he’s a young man in Spain, pretending to be a missing teenage boy in the US.

How did he do this and why did anyone believe him is best explained by himself and the people involved. And that's not just the family, but also the FBI, a private detective and Interpol. An edge-of-your-seat story that keeps you guessing until the end. Brilliantly put together like a detective puzzle, the director tells the story through a reconstruction and some film footage the family took.

To be fair. I don't think this movie fully qualifies as a documentary. The reconstruction is filmed so brilliantly, you'd guess the director wanted to make a documentary and feature film in one. It makes most criminal profiling shows look like child’s play.

But the makers had one major help. By interviewing the twisted man who put together this whole charade, they made it a complete and thoroughly entertaining documentary. Although in the end you can't help but feel sorry for the people involved. Even the imposter himself. Because why would a man go through such lengths to be someone else? filmOA end logo