Critics reviews

Layton has presented Bourdin as the ultimate fabulist, a ventriloquising narrator whose words are lip-synched by actors recreating key scenes, as if to emphasise his authorship of the story. Once the lies are rolling, Layton leaves it to the deceived to describe Bourdin's ingenious tricks, cleverly intercutting wordless shots of him peering cheekily into the camera.

The Imposter is as much about movies' own power to deceive as it is about the scam itself. Director Bart Layton pulls off a subtle trick: At times, he tantalizes viewers with Bourdin's behind-the-scenes details on how he could fake knowledge he clearly did not have. At others, Layton keeps viewers in the dark, doling out information at strategic intervals so that our own credulity is called into question.

A veteran producer of such TV documentary series as Syfy's Paranormal Witness and the National Geographic Channel's Breakout, Layton illustrates his talking-head interviews with extensive physical reenactments, persuasively staged and tightly edited.