Good start, but then it gets ruined

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

When the fiction is more unsatisfying than the real life, then you're in a big trouble. "The Chameleon" is a weak film because it fails to generate interest in a real life story that has all the elements that could make into a great project. The director made questions he couldn't answer and we couldn't figure out possible reasons for all what happened in the events surrounding a young French (Marc-André Grondin) who claims to be the disappeared son of a poor American family, "returning" to his home after being kidnapped and taken to Europe. The problem is that it's obvious that some members of the family know that this French accented guy can't be Nicky, but they continue with this game until an FBI agent (Famke Janssen) get suspicious about this sudden reappearance.Its cheap insistence in creating a mystery bigger than the one existing just doesn't work, with the skeletons in the family's closet with people who knew about the kid's real fate, like his older brother (Nick Stahl). And we are easily bothered by the lack of choices, lack of ways for the story to move in a proper manner. A movie like this can't dwell in the psychology involving the main character, therefore we'll never understand the reasoning behind the boy's staying with people who don't care about him. Why the hell he'd trade his erroneous life in France by shooting in the dark with a strange and careless American family, or why he didn't run away from this family he adopted, a bunch of people who wouldn't provide for him with anything? He's not getting much by staying there, no indicative that he's winning something.The cast tries a little bit harder than what the script can offer to them make something worthy of our attention. Grondin is a fine actor as evidenced in "C.R.A.Z.Y." but here there's only glimpses of that actor, his duality of angelical innocence with some darker traits is relatively good; Janssen was pretty decent and the more her character progress the more we like her, same goes with Emile De Ravin and Brian Geraghty, doing their best; Ellen Barkin was distractive while trying to be exceptional as the mother. As a drama, it's not as compelling as the plot sounds and could be; as a thriller is just dull and worthless. Bits of decent acting aren't enough to make it tolerable or watchable. 4/10

We can never be sure about dramatised true stories because tricks are played on our memories even as we try to retell with accuracy. This story of a character who is unlikely to be who he claims to be from the start is as much about doubts as it is about rebuilding hopes. From the opening shots of a body hunt through to the final frames this film attempts to tackle the driving forces of all the characters who make up the plot by showing up flaws and how all of us are sometimes drawn to papering over cracks in our thoughts.The film is quite clever in raising doubt in our minds because every player seems flawed from Fortin/Randall (Grondin), through Kimberly (Barkin), to Johnson (Janssen) as an FBI agent who seems to have no doubts. Perhaps a clumsy unevenness in the screenplay sometimes makes following the story a little less taut than it should be, but I could not fault the quality of the acting.Even a family torn apart by an undisclosed tragedy seem very adept at keeping things as they are when redemption is a possibility but the actual interaction between them is not well rehearsed in this script. Too much focus is perhaps played on the mother's relationship with her "son" when there was perhaps a lot of mileage elsewhere.I would guess many people would want a more commercial ending to a film like this and that has probably detracted from it popularity since it does stick to events as they happened but for me the real let down, having such a great cast, was a failure to grasp the real guts of the story and perhaps reveal a little more of what really may have happened.Seven out of ten for acting from a fine cast.

La Chameléon – The Chameleon – TRASH IT (C) The movie is based upon the true life of European impostor Frédéric Bourdin. He has been in more than 100 houses all over the Europe pretending as their missing sons. His reason for living with different families is not because he wants to rob or hurt them but he just want to seek "Love and Affection". The movie takes place when he caught first time pretending to be teen missing child in taxes, USA in age 25. The premise of the movie is really interesting but poor direction and weak screenplay made it completely mediocre and sloppy. The director never knew whether he wanted this movie to be a family drama or a thriller. Marc-Andre Grondin was good but lacked proper direction as times he was sweet and at times he seemed psychopath. Emilie De Ravin, Famke Jensen and Brian Geraghty did a fine job. Nick Stahl and Ellen Berkin performance was over the top. On the whole, it's very mediocre and doesn't do justice to the story.

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