The Impostor

Imagine this: a blond-haired, blue-eyed Texas boy goes missing. Almost four years later, a brown-haired, brown-eyed young French-Algerian man is identified by Interpol as the missing boy. Better yet, his grieving family accepts him as their son and brings him "home" to Texas. It's hard to swallow the absurdity of this situation.

Some documentaries are truly stranger than fiction and this 2012 Seattle International Film Festival entry from the United Kingdom certainly makes the point. In my opinion, this is a faux documentary inspired by real events but the actors who provide background scenarios are excellent! They really seem authentic; at least they fooled ME. And as the twists started twisting, everyone got even better!

We saw:

• Adam O'Brian (in his first film role) as Frédéric Bourdin, the "Impostor" of the title, who says, "The only thing I have in common with that Texas boy is that we both have five fingers on each hand." This stage-trained Welshman also sings.
• Anna Ruben ("The Fallow Field") is Carey Gibson, the gullible sister who flies to France to bring her younger brother back to Texas.
• Alan Teichman (in his first film role) was my favorite, the down- home, good-ol-boy, self-motivated detective, who uses the shapes of ears to identify people!

Director Bart Layton ("Locked Up Abroad") specializes in Documenta- ries, so this one augmented by a few actors is close enough. This award-winning film comes to Seattle fresh off a Grand Jury Prize for Best Docu- mentary at the Miami Film Festival.

You really have to stay with this one for the remarkable payoff.