Some stories are simply too incredible to believe. The craziest stories always spring from reality, and show sides of humanity that we would like to pretend didn't exist. One of the weirdest stories I've ever heard of is being brought to the big screen in The Imposter, a new film from director Bob Layton that is kind of a cross between a film noir mystery and an episode of the A&E Channel series, The First 48: Missing Persons. In fact, it's brought to you by the folks at A&E IndieFilms.
It tells the story of Nicholas Barclay, a 13 year old boy from Texas who suddenly vanishes one day in 1994, only to pop up mysteriously three years later in Spain. He's brought home, looking and sounding different than before, and filled with gruesome tales of torture and prostitution. Although his family accepts him back into their home, something isn't quite right, and it isn't long before suspicion starts to arise that this may not be Nicholas after all. The film was a massive hit at Sundance this year, praised for the way it toes the line between documentary and taut psychological thriller. While it's structured mostly like a doc, with interviews and archival footage, the recreations don't look anything like the cheap, thrown together crap we get on TV. This looks absolutely amazing, and the story, if you've ever read anything about it, is simply mind blowing. Ignore the 2008 film, The Chameleon, which tells a fictionalized version of the Barclay story. It's pretty terrible. Hold out until July 13th for when The Imposter hits theaters....
