The Imposter
Directed by: Bart Layton
2012
WARNING: this review could be a spoiler.
Some documentaries are great in raising questions. Some others tell great stories. The Imposter does both.
1994, Texas: thirteen year old Nicholas Barclay disappears, without leaving a trace. Three years later he is found in Spain. Although welcomed and accepted by the relieved family, the ‘new’ Nicholas bares little resemblance to the ‘old’. He is in fact not sixteen, but twenty-three, not American but French, and not Nicholas Barclay but Frédéric Bourdin. The Imposter tells the story of how a man, trying to escape his origins and past, managed to deceive police officers, an entire family and an FBI agent in his desperate quest to find a new identity and life for himself.
The fact that, with The Imposter, director Bart Layton has uncovered an incredible story almost needs no mention. What can be said, however, is that if only half of it would have been available, it would have been more than enough. An unexpected twist turns the documentary’s tale of trickery and deception into a suspicious murder mystery, leading the viewer into a labyrinth of truths and lies, masks and actors, doubts and assumptions.
Story apart, it is really Bourdin’s presence on the screen which steals the show, leading the narration of the events. In this regard, Bart Layton’s documentary could be considered a counterpart to Man on Wire, also produced by Simon Chin, for its focus on an individual dominated by their determination against all odds, dangers and doubts. Although different, both Bourdin and Philippe Petit posses that intelligence for the trick, that simultaneously charms and troubles the viewer.
Layton managed to combine narration, interviews, real footage and fictional re-enactments of the story with astonishing control. The editing of The Imposter visually translates Bourdin's cunning and ironic tale, often resorting to unexpected and creative solutions.
Because of its combination of tragedy, deceit and mystery the documentary could have been a mere visual adaptation of a tabloid story. Layton’s sophisticated direction of the feature, however, raises questions about the idea of identity within a bureaucratic society. Bourdin’s constant failure to get rid of his real identity calls into question how much control we truly have over our own.
But even more than that, The Imposter is a documentary reflecting on how far can a man go to have an identity others might be able to accept.
fiamma
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