The Imposter

This documentary tells the story of the disappearance of Nicholas Barclay from his family's home in San Antonio, Texas in 1994 and his apparent reappearance in Spain in 1997. We know from very early on that this was not Nicholas, that it was someone who took his identity. Nicholas had blonde hair and blue eyes with a fair complexion and was a teenager. His imposter was 23 had dark hair, brown eyes and a dark complexion. He spoke English with a non-native accent. For one reason or another he made Nicholas's family believe that he was Nicholas, that their son had been found.


The majority of the film is based on interviews, in the main with the imposter and Nicholas's mother, sister and brother-in-law. With hindsight I got to thinking, how much do we really know about this guy? Also we know he's basically untrustworthy about so many things, he smiles when he talks, is he spinning us another yarn. I can imagine that he knows how to make the best of a bad situation though; he knows how much truth he can get away with telling as well as how many lies.

He pretended to be Nicholas and got himself in very deep, ending up living his family in Texas and living his life. I suppose Bob Dylan did say 'when you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose'. That seemed to be his motivation, not to be himself. He said at the beginning of the film that he wanted to be treated like a child, as if he wanted to start his life again. The essence of his story is not unique; there was an adult who did this in Scotland a few years ago as well, but he didn't deceive a family as far as I know.

When things began to unravel he made some pretty strong allegations about the family. This really calls into question what and how we believe. If someone says 'I was lying before, but I'm telling the truth now' do we believe them? Such is the nature of documentaries that I suppose we need to be thinking, how much of this is the documentary makers emphasis, what are they not showing us? Everything may be true but do we know the entire context, all of the motivations. I must admit that my judgement was slightly coloured at the beginning of the film when the sister didn't seem clear as to where Spain was. Would I then have believed her any less? I did wonder as well as to whether the family would have more annoyed with the imposter for stringing them a line or with themselves for not seeing through him.