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| Impostor |
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  (4/10)
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Runtime: 92 m |
| Public Rating: 5.43 (14 votes) |
Director: Gary Fleder |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Sci-Fi Thriller |
Year: 2002 |
| Writer(s): Philip K. Dick (story); Scott Rosenberg (adaptation); Caroline C |
| Distributor: 1 |
| Reviewed by: Le Apprenti |
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impostor – [noun], a person who pretends to be someone else in order to deceive others. (Cambridge Dictionary of American English)
Looking at Impostor, it certainly lives up to its name. Because it is full of them.
Philip K. Dick's science fiction story chronicles the unexpected life of Dr. Spencer Olham (Gary Sinise), the supposed title character, and a supposed engineering scientist and loving husband. He shows up for work one day only to be captured and charged with being an alien-built cyborg with a timebomb hidden deep inside his body. The fun a la The Fugitive does not begin until he breaks out and sets out to clear his name while being one step ahead of the authorities.
If one impostor is not enough, how about a few more. One being Spencer’s supposed beloved wife Maya (Madeleine Stowe) - another Dr. Olham but of medicine - who is a supposed associate director in a city hospital but somehow does not fit into the role. She turns out to be a little more than a token female, the ‘little’ part being the surprising ending. Another is the smug supposed villain Agent Hathaway (Vincent D'Onofrio) who doubles as Spencer’s manhunter and his judge, jury and executioner. If his seeming villany is excessive, it is because he is not. Nor is his seeming absolute power of barking orders, executing suspects in his self-styled hung trial (in all of the three power roles), and arrogant retorts towards his superiors as if they are his inferiors, make him more of a bona fide field agent than a villain. Rounding up the fakers’ club is Cale (Mekhi Phifer), a citizen in a slum-like village outside the city dome where he also plays vigilante. Ironically, although he shows typical traits of a bad-ass gangster, he turns out to be the only heroic character at the end.
Though the original short story pre-dates that of The Fugitive, its film production does not. It takes its spirit straight from the hunt for Dr. Richard Kimble, condenses it to pure action thriller, and developes it along Dick’s pages towards the conclusion. It is short enough to cut to the chase without long dull breaks in-between the action scenes. However, nothing that is shown is anything that has not already been done before. Dr. Spencer Olham is a futuristic re-packaged Dr. Kimble, Hathaway plays up to the stereotypical devilish egotistical baddie, and Cale is exactly like every other film character that hails from and lives in the slums.
The Impostor does nothing for Sinise’s resume, nor for any other cast member – Stowe is grossly misused. Except for D'Onofrio, whose portrayal of the supposed bad guy is actually good. The plot is peppered with holes and oblivious. No proof is provided of Dr. Olham’s alleged non-human background other than a lecture of cybernetic theory, not that his digitally-enhanced flashbacks are any indication of who (or what) he truly is. Adding to that is the frequent mention of a powerful alien race that built the cyborgs, which Dr. Olham is accused of being, but those aliens have never been seen on screen.
Be not deceived, The Impostor is not what it appears to be, yet it is what it is supposed to be. And that is most distasteful, unless you have a fondness for B-rated action flicks.
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