Review: The Imposter (2012)
Cast: Adam O’ Brian, Frederic Bourdin, Carey Gibson
Director: Bart Layton
Country: UK
Genre: Documentary | Biography
Official Trailer: Here
In the summer of 1994, a 13-year-old boy, Nicholas Barclay, disappeared from San Antonio, Texas. Three-and-a-half years later, a young man in Southern Spain, found in the pouring rain without ID of any kind, claimed he was the now 16-year-old Nicholas Barclay. He spun an outrageous tale that involved kidnapping, a child-sex ring, shadowy authority figures, and an unlikely escape. Despite the horrific nature of that story, or, in hindsight, because of the horrific nature of that story, the young man claiming to be Nicholas was given a pass. The Spanish authorities contacted Nicholas’ family in Texas. Nicholas’ sister, Carey Gibson, flew out to Spain. Remarkably, she identified the oddly accented young man as Nicholas and made arrangements to bring him back to the United States.
But why, if Bourdin resembled Nicholas superficially (at best), did Carey and her family accept him as Nicholas for several months until a private investigator, Charlie Parker, and an FBI Special agent, Nancy Fisher, uncovered Bourdin’s real identity? That question lies at the center of director Bart Layton’s consistently compelling, if ultimately frustrating, reconstruction of the disquieting events that preceded and followed Bourdin’s acceptance into Carey’s family.
As the title, The Imposter, strongly implies, the young man Carey Gibson unreservedly identified as Nicholas, the young man who returned home with her, the young man who greeted Carey’s family at the Texas airport as her own, the young man who quietly found a place in Carey’s home, the young man who entered (or rather re-entered) high school, and the young man who became something of a local celebrity, wasn’t her brother. He was a youthful-looking 23-year-old Frenchman, Frederic Bourdin, wanted by Interpol for identify theft and fraud in several European countries. But why, if Bourdin resembled Nicholas superficially (at best), did Carey and her family accept him as Nicholas for several months until a private investigator, Charlie Parker, and an FBI Special agent, Nancy Fisher, uncovered Bourdin’s real identity?
That question lies at the center of director Bart Layton’s consistently compelling, if ultimately frustrating, reconstruction of the disquieting events that preceded and followed Bourdin’s acceptance into Carey’s family. Through dramatic, Errol Morris-inspired recreations and interviews with Bourdin, Carey, her immediate family, and, most importantly, Bourdin himself, Layton probes their personalities, exposing fissures in their respective narrative and rationales, and raising new, disturbing questions. Layton initially suggests Carey and her family accept Bourdin as Nicholas out of blind hope and quiet desperation, an explanation that seems credible for most of The Imposter’s 99-minute running time, but dissipates once Layton gives Charlie Parker and Nancy Fisher their turn in front of the camera to present their theories and ideas.
What emerges suggests that the line between truth and fiction has dissolved, perhaps irrevocably, particularly in the case of Bourdin, a con man whose repeated self-defeating actions implies not just an unhappy childhood, but a childhood filled with the personal tragedy of abandonment, physical and emotional.
What emerges suggests that the line between truth and fiction has dissolved, perhaps irrevocably, particularly in the case of Bourdin, a con man whose repeated self-defeating actions implies not just an unhappy childhood, but a childhood filled with the personal tragedy of abandonment, physical and emotional. Bourdin’s natural intelligence, guile, and cunning, not to mention a decade spent honing his particular talents, likely contributed to his improbable acceptance as the missing Nicholas Barclay. In Nicholas’ family, Bourdin may have found the perfect foils (“suckers” if you’re feeling uncharitable) for his outlandish schemes, but Layton follows another twist-heavy path that paints Carey and her family in a far less positive light.
It’s in the implication above and beyond their gullibility that Layton stumbles, however. He gives Bourdin’s words far more weight than he should given Bourdin’s status as a lifelong liar. The implication goes further, making Carey and her family willing participants in Bourdin’s ongoing deception for reasons both moral and personal (to say more would take this review into spoiler territory, assuming that’s possible in discussing a documentary). Layton, however, only has the guesses and theories of Bourdin, the private investigator, and the FBI agent. Layton, however, leaves moviegoers with contradictory, mutually exclusive, subjective truths (e.g., Bourdin, Carey, etc.), but not objective truths, specifically why the real Nicholas Barclay disappeared and what happened to him.
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