The Chameleon

(2010) The Chameleon PSYCHOLOGICAL MYSTERY DRAMA

It says right at the beginning that it's based on a true story, but when you watch it, it's just as tediously pointless despite showing some well known actors. It opens the movie in France, with a police car stopping on the middle of a freeway, after seeing a young man encroached naked while on the middle of the road. And after the police requested for his name, he then tells them that he'd been abducted as well as molested without giving any more details regarding who it was and where did it happen. And then tells them that his real name is Nicholas Mark Randall, who was abducted from a family who'd been reported missing while he was living in Louisiana. And he's first greeted by his older sister who assumed the person she was hugging was really his missing brother. And it was at that point, it's called "The Chameleon" for a reason as we get to witness the affect his return has on this particular family of nobody's with Famke Janson as police investigator, Jennifer Johnson having her doubts about who he is he really. After the film is over, the movie left with many unanswered questions filling the void by using many over abundance crying heartaches and arguing. You can tell a movie is bad is when viewers are able to use a fast forward button on some of the scenes while playing, and still be able to tell what's going on.

I decided not to mark this review for possible spoilers, since this movie is about a true story and therefore most people who are interested in seeing it will already know how it ends. Besides, several previous reviews tell more than I will about the end, and they got through without spoiler warnings.

First off, it's ridiculous to praise Ellen Barkin's acting just because she's practically unrecognizable: that's called makeup, not acting. Maybe she should be commended for allowing herself to look so awful, but she never was much in the looks department either. The best I can say is that she doesn't ruin this movie as she has some others. Her one-note performance certainly is unusual, but unusual doesn't necessarily mean great.

Second, the problem with movies based on true stories is that if the story isn't interesting the movie usually isn't interesting either. At first I wondered why I had never heard of any of these people before, under any names, and now I know why: there's nothing interesting about them - not the screwed-up, depressed family and not the neurotic, narcissistic bozo who duped them.

Famke Janssen adds a little bit of interest just because she's a charismatic person, but that plus Barkin's mousy, greasy, depressed, anorexic chain-smoking junkie are not enough to sustain a very boring story about very boring people.

I enjoyed it. The acting was solid. The story kept me intrigued. The actual case was very interesting.

What can you say about a film with multiple producers from different cultures and with diverse points of view, who finally mutilated it to accommodate their interests? Obviously, Canadians, French and Americans do not have the same notion of cinema. The "globalized entrepreneurs" apparently did and, in this case, "won." It's no wonder director Jean-Paul Salomé claims that the film was altered from its original conception.

This is neither a detective film, nor a crime thriller. It is a drama about identity, about deprivation of love, about moralistic justice, which illustrates the damage done to all children abandoned by parents who, to begin with, should never have had them. Based on real events, "The Chameleon" adapts a chapter in the life of Frédéric Bourdin, a French citizen abandoned by his Algerian father and French mother, nicknamed Chameleon by the press, for his notorious adoption of hundreds of false identities in various European countries, and for sneaking into several homes, posing as a missing relative. It was proven that there was no sexual deviation or economic motive in his actions: he was only looking for affection.

However, Frédéric had the bad idea of posing as a missing Texan teenager. This is how he managed to be "repatriated" to the United States, to be accommodated by the child's dysfunctional family (in the film, a proletarian, violent, heroin-addicted brother and mother, plus a sister who denies the truth), and that television and the police would doubt his identity, until they identified him and put him through a "moralizing" trial, in which he was given six years in prison, instead of the three established by law in such a case.

According to the tone and treatment of the filmed material, Salomé (director of "Belphegor", "Arsene Lupine" and "La daronne") and his co-screenwriter Natalie Carter had the purpose of observing and analyzing the events. Then the editor Toby Yates (son of Peter Yates, director of the action thriller "Bullitt") came on the scene and reissued the movie, so we do not know what the original 106-minute proposal was.

However, with everything that could be argued against it, I saw an honest and moving film, slow and inquisitive, with good performances from the cast. Not everything has to be extraordinary or Hollywood-style. The world is wide and open, the intimate or public exposition of human drama varies according to cultures and its appreciation is suitable for many readings and interpretations.

CHAMELEON, we are told at the beginning of this film, is based on a true story about a French lad who disguises himself as other people as a way of gaining attention and 'love' which is apparently missing in his life as a near orphan. Written by Natalie Carter and writer/director Jean-Paul Salomé it misses the opportunity to use a factual story and transpose it to the screen in such a way that we care enough about the characters to become involved in the unfolding of this charade. Unfortunately the writing and the casting and directing work against this and the result is a surprisingly uninvolving, fairly boring tale.

Nicholas Barclay (Marc-André Grondin) has been missing since age 13, for reasons unclear to the town's people in Baton Rouge. LA. Nicholas shows up in Spain after an auto accident, is treated for PTSD and is mutely amnesic until he suddenly talks and lets the hospital people know that he is Nicholas Barclay, a missing person. He states he was kidnapped and forced into a child prostitution ring that involved rape, abuse and torture - the reasons he gives for his lack of memory. Nicholas's sister Kathy (Emilie de Ravin) spends her last money to fly to France to pick up her lost brother and return him 'home' - to his chain-smoking depressed mother Kimberly (Ellen Barkin in a surprisingly monotone, phoned-in performance), Kathy's husband Brian (Brian Geraghty) and his sociopathic brother Brendan (Nick Stahl). Nicholas's identity is not clear to his family, except for his sister Kathy who offers compassion and fights for Nicholas' rights: the others doubt that their Nicholas is alive because of events they know to be true. The FBI in the persons of Tory Kittles and Famke Janssen investigate, doubting that Nicholas is who he says he is. After a dysfunctional attempt to relate to most of his family, his story starts to unravel and the true story of what happened to Nicholas starts to emerge: 'Nicholas' is Frédéric Bourdin, who after having plundered all the centers for runaway minors and delinquents in Europe, even though he has come of age, now passes himself off as Nicholas Barclay, shaves his body hair, and attempts to a carry off another 'chameleon caper' in the US.

The cinematic aspects of the film fail to make the story involving: the colors are so washed out that it appears to be made on cheap film, the story is disjointed with such scenes as Nicholas shaving his body hair really adding little to the tale, the surprisingly dull performance by Ellen Barkin is a shock, and Marc-André Grondin is simply not up to making us realize the potential of this fascinating story. Famke Janssen and Brian Geraghty make the most of the roles they are given, but otherwise the cast is unremarkable.

Grady Harp