Movies You Might Have Missed: Bart Layton's The Imposter

For fans of true crime, this documentary about Nicholas Barclay who vanishes and the imposter Frédéric Bordin who fakes his return, is compelling viewing

French confidence trickster Frédéric Bourdin managed to fool everyone but one determined private investigator

There has been a glut of terrific true crime documentaries in recent times; masterful works like Making a Murderer, The Jinx and OJ: Made in America. These compelling narratives are every bit the equal of any scripted drama and it feels as though we are living in a genuine golden age for the form. In 2012, Bart Layton’s The Imposter was released, an astonishing achievement that is every bit the equal of the aforementioned documentaries.

This is a film in which one’s jaw is on the floor throughout and, just when it seems things cannot get any more shocking, an astonishing third act revelation leaves the audience positively reeling. To say too much would be a mistake but the story begins in San Antonio, Texas in 1994 and concerns the disappearance of a 13-year-old boy named Nicholas Barclay. Three years after being reported missing, the Barclay family are astonished to learn their son is apparently alive and well in Spain.

At this point, things get very strange indeed. The authorities bring “Nicholas” back to America and he is welcomed home by his relatives despite his insistence on wearing a cap, scarf and dark glasses and the fact that he’s clearly much older than 16 and fails to resemble their son in a number of obvious ways ranging from eye colour to skin tone.

The imposter of the title is Frédéric Bourdin, a French confidence trickster who appeared to fool just about everyone bar Charlie Parker, a canny Texas private investigator straight out of the Coen brothers' Blood Simple. His obsession with Bourdin’s ears and the fact that they were the key to solving the case just goes to show that the truth is often stranger than fiction.

But the real elephant in the room concerns the Barclay family and why they were so willing to accept this charlatan as their son. Is it possible that the trauma of losing a child is so great that they were blinded to something as obviously fraudulent as Bourdin’s scheme. Here is a documentary with the suspense and intensity of the best thrillers and a denouement any scriptwriter would be delighted to have concocted. For fans of true crime, file under essential viewing.