Imagine that your sister is not your sister. Your neighbor is not your neighbor. Your friend is not your friend. No, this is not a review for The Matrix, but The Imposter; a documentary depicting the tale of a French con-man, Frederic Bourdin impersonating the missing child Nicholas Barclay and conniving his way into the Barclay family.
The film reads like a how-to on stealing someone’s identity: Bourdin, dark-haired and brown eyed manages to convince the blond and blue-eyed Barclay family with his accented English that he is, in fact, their long-missing (now) 16 year old son. He weaves tales of sexual abuse, human trafficking, and bodily mutilation; so detailed and indiscreet he even cons the FBI.
The Imposter is all about narrative. The film watches like a page-turning crime novel, mesmerising with nerve racking twists (boy howdy are there twists) and unpalatable morality. It cleverly edits and weaves between dramatization and talking heads with a devil’s wit and sardonic sense of humour. The film is wonderfully rounded out with gorgeous cinematography; carving out dark corners creeping with lies and secrets.
Ultimately, the movie comes off as an extended A&E (hey that’s the name of the production company) true crime special. Towards the end, it starts to spin its wheels. The film can’t (of course) offer any breakthroughs or new revelations to the case that can’t be found on its wikipedia article, and the narrative begins to sag when the film should have ended 10-20 minutes prior. However it’s spine-tingling observations and dense narrative are both chilling and engrossing; I con you not.
Pulp Diction 