The Truth, Nothing But The Truth

Today to escape the very warmish weather that has made our top floor flat unbearable, we went to the air-conditioned cinema. This was very New York of us and very un-British -- we should have gone to a park, but I felt too hot and needed some serious AC.

But I'm glad we did as we stumbled upon an interesting movie previewing, called The Imposter, which I'm sure will create a lot of buzz (read the Guardian article here). It's a documentary about real life events involving a missing boy from Texas who gets found in Spain but appears to be quite different than the blond haired, blue eyed boy who disappeared. I'm not giving anything away by saying it doesn't turn out to be him. The story unfolds in a narrative style through interviews with the imposter himself as well as the family who accepted him as the missing son.

It's a good film and plays with the idea of truth and perception. But the Hub and I decided that it pales in comparison with a film we saw ages ago, called Capturing the Friedmans. Also a documentary, it's filled with interviews of all the people involved in serious crime allegations against a Long Island father and son. And it makes you second guess everything you know about truth.

If you're interested in psychology and documentaries, The Imposter is very good. But if you missed Capturing the Friedmans when it came out in 2003, it's worth a watch, as in my opinion it's an even better one.