The Chameleon (film)
5.6 /10 1 Votes
Director Jean-Paul Salome Initial DVD release October 26, 2010 (France) Country Canada
France
United States | 5.6/10 IMDb Genre Biography, Drama, Thriller Duration Language English
French | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date 23 April 2010 (2010-04-23) (Tribeca Film Festival)
23 June 2010 (2010-06-23) (France) Based on The Chameleon
by Christophe dAntonio Writer Natalie Carter, Jean-Paul Salome, Christophe dAntonio (book) Music director Bruno Coulais, Jeff Cardoni Cast Famke Janssen (Jennifer Johnson), Nick Stahl (Brendan Kerrigan), Marc-André Grondin (Frédéric Fortin / Nicholas Mark Randall), Emilie de Ravin (Kathy Jansen), Ellen Barkin (Kimberly Miller), Tory Kittles (Dan Price)Similar movies Blackhat , Salt , Sicario , Fair Game , The Kingdom , Saving Private Ryan Tagline How do you know what you see is really the truth? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Chameleon is a 2010 film directed by Jean-Paul Salomé and co-written with Natalie Carter. The screenplay is based upon the true story of Frédéric Bourdin who impersonated a missing child named Nicholas Barclay in San Antonio, Texas, in the 1990s. Much of the true story was incorporated into the film although the years have been altered and the location was moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Contents
Plot
A young man (Marc-André Grondin) in France shaves off all his body hair and turns himself in to the police. The man claims to be a 16-year-old boy from Louisiana named Nicholas Mark Randall, who had been missing for four years. His story is that he was kidnapped by a child prostitution ring in France who physically altered his appearance.
He is reunited with his family who immediately have their suspicions regarding his story. His mother (Ellen Barkin) and half brother Brendan (Nick Stahl) do not seem to accept him, and many questions are open regarding whether this man could in fact be their lost family member, considering he bears little resemblance to the boy who left and now talks with a French accent. His sister Kathy (Emilie de Ravin) accepts his story without hesitation and eventually so does his possible mother.
F.B.I. Agent Jennifer Johnson (Famke Janssen) strongly suspects that he is lying because she has had extensive experiences with people lying to her, including a man who was a child murderer whom she had dated. Meanwhile, his story starts to unravel and the true story of what happened to Nicholas starts to emerge.
Cast
Release
The film premiered at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival in the United States.
Critical reception
The film received mostly mixed to negative reviews from critics. Review aggregator Metacritic gave the film a 41 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews", based on 5 reviews. Stephen Holden of The New York Times said the film barely addresses the central issue of Nicholas being an imposter, except at the film's "unsatisfying, sentimental conclusion. Aaron Hillis of The Village Voice said the film's psychological, emotional, and moral implications are not explored.
References
The Chameleon (film) WikipediaThe Chameleon (film) IMDb The Chameleon (film) themoviedb.org