The Imposter (2012)

This film is exploitative dramatization. I need to write four more lines for this to be submitted. Documentary films should present the facts. People should be allowed to decide for themselves. This film twists and turns a very sad story into something completely detached from reality.

Have you ever wanted something so badly that you'd have believed anything to make it come true? Bart Layton's The Imposter teeters on the border between feature film and documentary. While watching, you'll soon forget that the film is "educational", all connotations with the word considered, and find yourself being pulled in by it the same way a Hollywood production would. Storytelling techniques and seamless transitions create an immersive and thought provoking experience for the viewer, while subtle audio visual layers take your imagination by the hand and lead it into the realm of uncertainty, doubt, and existential questions. All things considered, the darkly curious events depicted in The Imposter among the most compelling you'll learn about in any documentary.Perhaps the most unique and provocative storytelling techniques that Layton uses are the split second, silent close up shots of Bourdin's face, sometimes accompanied by interview recordings, which express feelings of guilt, lament, pride, and joviality. Because of this, despite the number of layers and the depth of importance they hold, Bourdin remains fresh in the viewer's mind as the keystone to the entire story. These images also provide insight to Bourdin's psyche and his attitude towards those events.Everything about the film makes the viewer ask "why"? The "how" is explained to us, but the "why" remains obscure. Very little information is revealed about Bourdin's actual upbringing and several details throughout the film cause us to question his sanity. We question why he would do such a thing, why the San Antonio family allowed him to do it, and if we ourselves have the capacity to replace our own loved ones with strangers.

--is the first that came to mind as I began writing this review, because it is the only word that is required. In fact, the very word "vapid" has more color and interest than this pointless movie. Yes, it's utterly POINTLESS. And that's not even hyperbole!This movie SO monumentally FAILED to live up to what I'd heard/read about it, that I was ANGRY by the time it was *finally* over. I'm a tough critic anyway, I know, but come ON. Some serious back- alley shenanigans involving critics' genitalia/star valves and the hands, mouths, and other assorted orifices of the producers/directors/actors/et al HAD to have occurred for this drivel to be so highly rated.I'd demand my money back, but I didn't pay to see it. Instead, I guess I'll just have to log into IMDb (which is rare) so I can vent my spleen.

This started out a little dry and then got progressively creepier. Filmed as a documentary with interviews from family members and "the imposter" himself; a missing teen from Texas is found alive in Spain and returns home after nearly 4 years.However several people question his real identity and then things get really freaky. Initially his family is overjoyed, the boy bears many of the same distinguishing marks he always had, but why does he now have a strange accent and look so different? And why doesn't the family seem to notice? And then an investigator starts asking questions.The ending of this and the questions it provokes were a big Wow. This story needs to made into a movie because you just can't make this kinda stuff up. 11.13