Review of The Imposter (2012) by V H — 29 Sep 2012

In 1994, 13-year-old Nicholas Barclay left his San Antonio home to play basketball and never returned. Three and a half years later, Nick's family got a call saying he'd turned up on a small town in Spain. Shocking if it were true, but as it turned out that the person claiming to be Nick was actually a 23-year-old named Frederic Bourdin who looked and sounded nothing like him - different hair color, different eye color, strong French accent. Nick's older sister flies to Spain to retrieve him, takes one look at this imposter, and hugs him like there's nothing wrong. Apparently she believes that it's perfectly plausible that this random guy is her brother.

When it comes to recognizing faces, I'm about as bad as it gets, and granted people change a lot in their early teens, but I think even I'd remember that my brother had blue eyes and his approximate facial structure, not to mention his mannerisms, the way he walked, his voice. It's like when they do those age progressions for missing children -- the older version always looks exactly like the younger one except with a bigger nose and an updated hairstyle, not like a totally different person.

"The Imposter" is told from Bourdin's perspective - including how and why he hatched his plan - and reveals that he too was shocked that the sister believed he was Nick. Back in Texas, Nick's mother and the rest of the family were also convinced. Are they the most gullible people in the world or did they want so badly to believe that Nick was alive that they just went with it? A third more sinister possibility the film floats about is that new Nick's appearance was used as a convenient cover-up for foul play related to original Nick's disappearance.

Bourdin's story starts to unravel once a private investigator gets involved and notices that new Nick's ears are different than old Nick's - apparently our ear shapes never change - but even then, the authorities are reluctant to believe him. I guess no one likes to admit they've been so badly duped.

This is one of those movies that you'd have a hard time believing if it weren't a documentary, since almost everyone involved was so easily fooled by what to the audience is obviously a preposterous hoax. Bourdin is a scary good liar, to be sure, but I'd like to believe that this tale of one person after another succumbing to his deceptions is more a fascinating lesson about the trustingness of human nature than further proof that people are idiots.