Tuesday, March 12, 2013
FICTION IS STRANGER THAN TRUTH OR WHAT?
Today's movie was the documentary/narrative
Well, number one, the spelling of "imposter" is a purposeful act. Let it be.
A young con artist passes himself off with a false identity to the Spanish police but things go out of control when the actual family of the lost kid is contacted and, so he won't be found out, he continues to lie his way through the situation.
The amazing thing is that the family buys the story and, after four or five years, actually re-unite with their "lost son". And completely accept him.
Things go on from there and eventually unravel and even more surprises await.
So this is not about whether the imposter is a fake or not. We know he is because he is telling us so. It is about how people reacted to it and what the fuck is going on with them.
This is a thriller of a story with a mix of actual players including the perp and the family as well as an FBI agent and private investigator that got involved in the case.
The director, Bart Layton uses "re-enactment" along with the talking heads without going over the line of distorting the story or confusing who the real and not real people are.
This allows him to let us be sucked into the story and the situation in the same way that the real people were. Or pretended they were.
Some of it is crazy but a kind of sensible craziness. It is exciting. It is compelling. It is amazing.
Even if it was totally false, which it is not, it would make a great story. Because much of it is true, and we know what parts are still in doubt, it is even more crazy.
The kid who plays the perp looks like the kid who pretends to be the lost son even if he does not look like him, has a french accent, doesn't remember anything about his previous time with the family or his lost life. Then he does. In the same way, the other actors look like their real life counterparts and Layton intercuts very cleverly to make it all flow. And ebb.
This is a great film made from what is really a tabloid story. Only you would not believe it in a tabloid. Here, well, I believe it all. There is great care taken to confirm the "facts" and show the other info as lies.
I will give this film a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
