Review of The Imposter (2012) by Adam S — 13 Jul 2014

Now, this. This is a documentary done completely and utterly right. I'm going to come clean, I was only watching this little film in the first place because it was available on ABC iView, and I needed something to happen in the background to distract me from some work. Documentary films usually work well for that.

This one... it did not. It's impossible to not be sucked in by the narrative that this documentary tells, beginning with a troubled young man in Spain, who decides to take the identity of a missing Texan teenager.

Interviews with the con-artist himself, Frederic Bourdin, as well as with the family he put himself into and the investigators who worked on the case help to punctuate a series of dramatic reenactments that add clarity and atmosphere to this true life story.

Certainly, there's enough twists and turns within the film itself that you could be forgiven for forgetting the true crime aspect to this film, but it tells a truly remarkable and gobsmacking story. A classic doco.