Plots(1)
Documentary directed by Bart Layton that uses interviews and dramatised recreations to piece together the bizarre story of a missing boy and the young man who impersonated him. Nicholas Barclay was 13-years-old when he disappeared from San Antonio, Texas in 1994, leaving his family bereft. Over three years later, he turned up unexpectedly in Spain and was flown home to his family - albeit this Nicholas spoke with a French accent, had grown a beard and had different-coloured hair and eyes. Astoundingly, the boy's family managed to overlook these glaring irregularities until a private investigator was able to prove that he wasn't their son at all, but rather Frederic Bourdin, a 23-year-old French con artist. The film explores the human capacity to believe what we want to believe in spite of all evidence to the contrary. (4DVD)
(more)Reviews (3)
Brilliant! A very smartly put together documentary that beautifully plays with the willingness of people to believe in what they want to believe and make sense of things that lack any rational justification. It will leave your head in a stew. Yeah and, lying is bad! :-D
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A great true crime documentary that is more intense, smarter, colder, and overall better than True Detective and The Serpent combined. The story focuses on a young 16-year-old guy who claims to be the missing son of a grieving family from Texas. It tells about the abduction and torture he endured for three years. It’s very interesting and captivating, and the last half hour has such explosive and shocking twists that I am truly surprised how they managed to shock me multiple times in a row. I haven't seen such intelligently constructed and chilling thriller in a long time. Truly remarkable. 8/10.
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There is a man who wants to pretend to be someone else. He is a chameleon. He pretended to be a son who was missing for three years. The missing person was from Texas, and the person pretending to be him was French. Nevertheless, they believed him. It's an unbelievable story that shows how people want to believe and how naive they can sometimes be. When a person wants to, they can truly do almost anything. Strong, not so much in terms of what happened, but that it can even happen at all. The film has excellent acted passages.
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