98% The Imposter

All Critics (43) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (42) | Rotten (1)

This is as much a film about self-deception as it is about deception, and as such, it is a study in pain.

This is a train wreck you think you see coming, but no matter how prepared you are the nature and extent of the damage will overwhelm you.

As fiction, it would never fly. But "The Imposter" happens to be true, and it's a jaw-dropper.

The movie is fascinating, but it leaves you uneasy, because you don't always know who you're watching (actor? family member?), and you begin to feel that you're being scammed, too.

Rarely has the con game, and the human capacity to believe in improbable outcomes, been taken to such extremes as we see in "The Imposter"...

Director Bart Layton takes a story that was already fascinatingly weird to begin with and makes it even more compelling by structuring it as a shadowy film noir.

Stranger than fiction...simply by presenting us with the facts as they unfolded, Layton winningly encourages more questions than answers.

Only an extraordinary documentary ... can create such a sense of intrigue, tension and mystery.

Layton, a television documentarian, uses familiar Errol Morris-style techniques to wrap us in the mystery of Nicholas Barclay.

Creepier than Catfish and as cinematic as Man On Wire, this is an unnerving story immaculately told and a strong contender for doc of the year.

Truth that is undeniably stranger than fiction. A film that shows us that we may have found the enemy, and it may be us.

The greatest mystery of all -- why this family believed the imposter and welcomed him "home" -- remains hauntingly unsolved

The dense storytelling, heavy thematic burdens and endlessly conflicting perspectives could have spun The Imposter right off the rails had Layton's hold not been so assured.

The movie benefits from an abundance of colorful characters of mixed intelligence.

A very strange tale that grows even stranger on close examination.

It isn't often that audiences will feel inclined to believe the word of a proven liar over a family who suffered as a result of his dishonesty, but The Imposter achieves that unusual feat.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_imposter_2012/

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