I enjoyed hearing the stories from the first two women about how they met and got involved with the Swindler. But aside from those bits - this "documentary" is seriously lacking. No timelines, dates or other major details are provided.
We meet the first woman who gives us a good rundown of his schitck. He meets the girls, woos them with luxurious experiences and big spending such as fancy restaurants and private jet trips. Then promises them a lifetime of all this by talking about marriage and kids, and also telling her "lets move in together" and the girls go off apartment hunting for luxurious places. Also his fake name and identity is curated to present himself as a diamond dynasty billionaire. Once the girls are in, he begins requesting large amounts of money and even talks them into going and taking out loans to get for him. Of course the naive and in-love women oblige and then he gets nasty when he is caught or confronted.
But that is the gist of it. He has done this routine with countless women across Europe, 3 of whom are featured in the doc. It ends with reporters exposing him and him being arrested for having a fake passport in Prague. I feel like this whole doc could have been told in a newspaper article or at the most made into 30 minutes. The best thing would have been for them to make a story inspired by the real events like Inventing Anna. Because I am not impressed with this piece at all, sorry.
It also did not do the women any justice. It seems they all thought of him as their "boyfriend" but we only see him communicating with them via text and calls, with occasional fly-ins. Most of the texts are generic "miss you" and "love you" thrown in with the requests for money. How are you so smitten with this guy - some for 14 months!? A better doc could have explored what exactly their devotion and fascination with him was about.
We meet the first woman who gives us a good rundown of his schitck. He meets the girls, woos them with luxurious experiences and big spending such as fancy restaurants and private jet trips. Then promises them a lifetime of all this by talking about marriage and kids, and also telling her "lets move in together" and the girls go off apartment hunting for luxurious places. Also his fake name and identity is curated to present himself as a diamond dynasty billionaire. Once the girls are in, he begins requesting large amounts of money and even talks them into going and taking out loans to get for him. Of course the naive and in-love women oblige and then he gets nasty when he is caught or confronted.
But that is the gist of it. He has done this routine with countless women across Europe, 3 of whom are featured in the doc. It ends with reporters exposing him and him being arrested for having a fake passport in Prague. I feel like this whole doc could have been told in a newspaper article or at the most made into 30 minutes. The best thing would have been for them to make a story inspired by the real events like Inventing Anna. Because I am not impressed with this piece at all, sorry.
It also did not do the women any justice. It seems they all thought of him as their "boyfriend" but we only see him communicating with them via text and calls, with occasional fly-ins. Most of the texts are generic "miss you" and "love you" thrown in with the requests for money. How are you so smitten with this guy - some for 14 months!? A better doc could have explored what exactly their devotion and fascination with him was about.