Review of The Chameleon (2010) by Ricardo B — 09 Jun 2011

Great cast Nick Stahl,Famke Janssen, Ellen Barkin, Emilie de Ravin and Nick Chinlund. Everyone involved didn't look like themselves they seemed to have morphed too except Famke but still everyone looked so inmerse in their characters it was easy to believe and since it was based on a true story it was even more fantastic but being True doesn't mean that it will be super exciting! It is a tense, effective thriller, faithful to the real events it depict in a stylistically gorgeous mastery. It is a psychological thriller with great actors and a subtly photographed scenery of the deep south, in the down and dirty poor neighborhood of the drugged and drunk underclass. Of course, it isn't really uplifting, but the characters are real people playing out their desperation. The narrative is well constructed and keeps you interested through out, especially in the case you had no idea about the event it portrays, you'll get drawn to it only through the sheer magnetism of the central character, who also happen to be despicable in many ways, like everyone else around him.

The amazing true story of Frédéric Bourdin, who after having plundered all the centers for runaway minors and deliquents in Europe, even thought he has come of age, now passes himself off as Nicholas Barclay, a 13-year-old American who had vanished three years ago. To his astonishment, Nicholas's family welcomes him like their son, leaving Interpol and the FBI aghast. It is the beginning of a race against time for the investigators, family and Bourdin. But who is manipulating whom? And who is Frederic Bourdin in reality?

An FBI Agent is hot on the tracks of Frédéric Fortin who has taken up the identity of a woman's long lost son completely convincing the police and the boy's family of his identity.

A family welcomes home a missing child, but he may not be all he seems to be in this suspense drama. Nicholas Barclay was a thirteen year old living in Louisiana with his family when he mysteriously disappeared, and though his mother Kimberley (Ellen Barkin) and sister Kathy (Emilie de Ravin) have been hopeful he'll be found, after three years it seems increasingly unlikely. To their surprise, Nicholas (Marc-Andre Grondin) returns home one day, claiming he'd been kidnapped by child predators but finally escaped. Kimberley and Kathy are overjoyed and welcome him home with open arms. But Nicholas's brother-in-law Brian (Brian Geraghty) senses this young man isn't really Nicholas, and Jennifer Johnson (Famke Janssen), an FBI agent looking into the case, shares his suspicions. But if Brian and Jennifer are convinced Nicholas is an imposter, why aren't Kimberley and Kathy willing to acknowledge the same evidence? Based on a true story, The Chameleon was the first English-language feature from French director Jean-Paul Salomé.