Top 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsMost Popular Video GamesMost Popular Music VideosMost Popular Podcasts
    Release CalendarBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV NewsIndia TV Spotlight
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsBest Picture WinnersBest Picture WinnersEmmysSTARmeter AwardsSan Diego Comic-ConNew York Comic-ConSundance Film FestivalToronto Int'l Film FestivalAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

The Imposter

  • 20122012
  • RR
  • 1h 39m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
49K
YOUR RATING
The Imposter (2012)
A documentary centered on a young Frenchman who convinces a grieving Texas family that he is their 16-year-old son who went missing for 3 years.
Play trailer2:33
2 Videos
98 Photos
DocumentaryBiographyCrime
A documentary centered on a young man in Spain who claims to a grieving Texas family that he is their 16-year-old son who has been missing for 3 years.A documentary centered on a young man in Spain who claims to a grieving Texas family that he is their 16-year-old son who has been missing for 3 years.A documentary centered on a young man in Spain who claims to a grieving Texas family that he is their 16-year-old son who has been missing for 3 years.
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
49K
YOUR RATING
    • Bart Layton
  • Stars
    • Adam O'Brian
    • Nicholas Barclay(archive footage)
    • Carey Gibson
    • Bart Layton
  • Stars
    • Adam O'Brian
    • Nicholas Barclay(archive footage)
    • Carey Gibson
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 105User reviews
    • 139Critic reviews
    • 77Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Won 1 BAFTA Award

    Videos2

    Theatrical Version
    Trailer 2:33
    Watch Theatrical Version
    The Imposter
    Trailer 2:26
    Watch The Imposter

    Photos98

    Adam O'Brian in The Imposter (2012)
    Adam O'Brian in The Imposter (2012)
    Bart Layton in The Imposter (2012)
    Adam O'Brian and Anton Marti in The Imposter (2012)
    Adam O'Brian in The Imposter (2012)
    The Imposter (2012)
    The Imposter (2012)
    The Imposter (2012)
    The Imposter (2012)
    The Imposter (2012)
    The Imposter (2012)
    The Imposter (2012)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Adam O'Brian
    Adam O'Brian
    • Frédéric Bourdin
    Nicholas Barclay
    Nicholas Barclay
    • Self - Missing Person
    • (archive footage)
    Carey Gibson
    Carey Gibson
    • Self - Nicholas' Sister
    Bryan Gibson
    Bryan Gibson
    • Self - Nicholas' Brother-in-Law
    Beverly Dollarhide
    Beverly Dollarhide
    • Self - Nicholas' Mother
    Frédéric Bourdin
    Frédéric Bourdin
    • Self - Imposter
    • (as Frederic Bourdin)
    Nancy Fisher
    Nancy Fisher
    • Self - Special Agent, FBI
    • (as Nancy B. Fisher)
    Philip French
    Philip French
    • Self - Consul General, U. S. Embassy in Spain
    • (as Phillip French)
    Codey Gibson
    Codey Gibson
    • Self - Nicholas' Nephew
    Charlie Parker
    Charlie Parker
    • Self - Private Investigator
    Bruce Perry
    Bruce Perry
    • Self - Texas Children's Hospital
    • (as Bruce D. Perry)
    Allie Hostetler
    Allie Hostetler
    • Self - Nicholas' Neighbor
    • (as Allie Hosteiler)
    Kevin Hendricks
    Kevin Hendricks
    • Self - Nicholas' Childhood Friend
    Anna Ruben
    Anna Ruben
    • Carey Gibson
    Cathy Dresbach
    • Nancy Fisher
    Alan Teichman
    • Charlie Parker
    Ivan Villanueva
    • Social Worker
    María Jesús Hoyos
    María Jesús Hoyos
    • Judge
    • (as Maria Jesus Hoyos)
      • Bart Layton
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    More like this

    Capturing the Friedmans
    7.7
    Capturing the Friedmans
    Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
    8.5
    Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
    Three Identical Strangers
    7.6
    Three Identical Strangers
    Tickled
    7.5
    Tickled
    The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker
    6.2
    The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker
    There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane
    6.7
    There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane
    The Imposter
    9.0
    The Imposter
    Abducted in Plain Sight
    6.8
    Abducted in Plain Sight
    Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
    8.2
    Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
    The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst
    8.6
    The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst
    Mommy Dead and Dearest
    7.4
    Mommy Dead and Dearest
    American Murder: The Family Next Door
    7.2
    American Murder: The Family Next Door

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The family of Nicholas Barclay initially declined to participate in the documentary, as they felt they had been unfairly portrayed in the media in the past, and they had lost much of their home video footage of Nicholas in a fire. They eventually consented to be interviewed, and the small amount of footage that has survived was used.
    • Goofs
      At the beginning of the film, Frédéric Bourdin's hair line is very defined and has dark hair. But by the end of the film he has a noticeable receding hairline. However, the film portrays his talking scenes as one long interview as his shirt never changes.
    • Quotes

      Frédéric Bourdin - Imposter: Before I was born, I definitely had the wrong identity. I already didn't know - I was already prepared not to know who I really was. A new identity with a real passport, an American passport... I could go to the U.S., go to school there, live with that family, and just being someone and don't have never again to worry about being identified. I saw the opportunity.

    • Connections
      Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Most Hard to Watch Documentaries (2018)
    • Soundtracks
      Queen Bitch
      Written by David Bowie

      Performed by David Bowie

    User reviews105

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    8/10
    Old Nick
    Stranger than fiction true-life documentary of the opportunistic and heartless identity-theft by a mature 23 year old French nationality homeless man who, after being picked up on the street in Limares, Spain assumed the identity of a young boy who had disappeared three years ago aged 13 from his home in Texas.

    The perpetrator, one Frederic Bourdin, randomly picked his new identity from a file of international missing persons whilst in police custody, although you would think he could have done a better job of it as he was at the time six years older than the boy Nicholas Barclay he chose to impersonate, had a different hair colour and spoke with a pronounced accent, never mind being separated by the Atlantic Ocean, but preying on a family elated at the prospect of the miraculous reappearance of their long lost son, he ran the whole nine yards in the role before finally a doctor's testimony put a stop to the charade and eventually saw Bourdin go to jail, leaving behind a family now heartbroken a second time and a host of incredulous officials duped by his brazen callowness.

    Like a dark version of the Emperor's New Clothes, this is a story of a desperate family seeing what wasn't there and believing the impossible through the blinding distortion of their individual and collective grief. It all really starts with the boy's sister who flies to Spain and immediately falls for her long-lost brother's incredible return from the dead, swallowing whole his explanations for his changes of appearance, voice and character. Bourdin, now spying a life of ease in America as the pampered born-again son, had decided to follow through with the ruse, dying his hair blond, adding a few tattoos and concocting a fantastical story of being kidnapped and transported abroad to a life as a sex-slave with the so-called gang even managing to conveniently change his eye-colour in the process.

    There's no question of the film-maker here attempting some is-he-or-isn't-he mystery, as the film's title makes clear, confirmed by Bourdin's first smirking, unrepentant appearance. The key events in the fraud are recreated dramatically and interspersed with interviews of all the major players in this unbelievable story set to a deliberately light, capering musical soundtrack which itself from the first strongly hints at the elusiveness and illusion at the heart of this incredible story.

    In the end Bourdin got jailed for six years, the missing boy's hapless family saw their hopes of his resurrection brutally dashed and of course, his abduction and likely murder returned to the files of the unexplained and unsolved.

    I came away from the film with a sense of how the power of loss, especially that of a child, can so blind a family which had given up hope and a sense of rage at the heartless selfishness of a still apparently unapologetic sick individual who even today diverts blame back to the trusting family who took him in.

    Pity help the wife and three children the film tells us in an epilogue he lives with today.
    helpful•10
    1
    • Lejink
    • Jun 1, 2020

    FAQ1

    • Does the IMDB description add spoilers to the documentary?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 24, 2012 (United Kingdom)
      • United Kingdom
      • United States
      • Avalon (Spain)
      • Official Facebook
      • English
      • Spanish
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • San Antonio, Texas, USA
    • Production companies
      • 24 Seven Productions
      • A&E IndieFilms
      • Channel 4
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • 1 hour 39 minutes
      • Color
      • Dolby Digital

    Related news

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    The Imposter (2012)
    Top Gap
    By what name was The Imposter (2012) officially released in India in English?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    • Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • IMDb Developer
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2023 by IMDb.com, Inc.