On What is Real with The Imposter

What is real? Not in a blockbuster, Total Recall kind of way, but in a manipulative artistic kind of way. The Imposter asks this kind of question and challenges audiences to answer it. The story is that of a thirteen-year-old boy who goes missing in Texas. Four years later he shows up, in Spain, with a French accent and dramatically altered physically. The once grief stricken family, now delighted, accept him back with no questions. The audience however, have lots of questions.

Director Bart Layton is very aware of the conventions of the documentary genre and because of this he can break and play with them. For a documentary The Imposter looks like a dramatic feature and Layton uses his camera in ways that will remind audiences of feature films. The use of actors, of found film footage and Layton’s staging of his scenes all reinforce this notion that what we are watching is fiction. Yet maybe this is the point. The Imposter is not a one sided documentary, Layton does not favour one argument over another and the people involved all imbue the audience with feelings of ambivalence. By creating a style of documentary that forces us to question the validity of what we are seeing, Layton is giving his film a style that matches the theme: uncertainty. It may be a true story, but the outcome is far from clear.

Not too long ago, Catfish (2010) achieved a similar effect, but by using very familiar documentary techniques. In the case of Catfish, the tidiness and remarkable nature of the story, made audiences unsure. In the case of The Imposter, Layton wants us to be unsure, wants us to question the truth, but in reality, it’s likely to be true.