The Imposter

Just when you think The Imposter has reached a new level of implausibility, this blackly intriguing documentary springs another surprise on you, asking you to suspend your disbelief one more time or to question the motives of everyone – and I mean everyone – playing a part in this stranger-than-fiction true story, one that's reminiscent at times of the great Errol Morris' best docos. Director Bart Layton has a fascinating tale here: three years after 13-year-old Texan tearaway Nicholas Barclay disappeared, his family got a call from Spain, where a young man claiming to be Nicholas had turned himself in to authorities, claiming he'd escaped from a ring of kidnappers who'd altered his appearance and forced him to speak in a foreign accent. Of course, this was not Nicholas – and the film gives 23-year-old French con man Frederic Bourdin ample opportunity to explain why he posed as this missing boy – but the Barclays bought the story and welcomed him with open arms. Maybe they wanted desperately to believe Nicholas was still alive. But, as The Imposter hints, maybe they had something to hide as well. It's compelling stuff, given added texture by the deceiver at the centre of the story offering his account of events, and Layton gives it the morbid appeal of the best true-crime yarns.

In cinemas now.