Movies

I was surprised to see that IMDB users had rated this movie as low as they did. This movie really exemplifies the paranoia that is typical of the works of Philip K. Dick much better than the more expensive and more widely-seen "Minority Report". As much as that movie had going for it (great visuals and action, leavened by the right amount of humor), it let the viewer off the hook at the end by resolving the story with a tidy, happy, feel-good ending. "Impostor" is a much lower budget film and very grim but remains true to its Phildickian origin throughout, with the plot unfolding layer by layer until the end, which is both shocking and inevitable. It's the kind of stuff great "Twilight Zone" episodes were made of.

The late Philip K. Dick has been the source of inspiration for many movies in the last 25 years, although most of them are only loosely based on his fine work. This film is based on Dick's story, "The Imposter", and they've managed to expand out a 20 page story in a 90 minute movie, mostly just by adding in chase scenes. Still, the movie is fairly faithful to Dick's original work, with essentially the same ending. (Although in the novel, the U-bomb was capable of destroying the entire earth and did.) The basic concept of "If I'm not me, then who am I?" comes through pretty effectively here. Gary Sinese and Vincent D'Nofrio come off well in their roles. Madelene Stowe and Tony Shaloub have good supporting roles. (Funny that three of the principal actors have gone on to detective shows.)

I watched the feature length "director's cut", then viewed the 37 minute short version on the dvd. The short film is much better! It's more faithful to the PKD story and captures the theme of identity and illusion vs reality more concisely. It's essentially the beginning and ending of the feature w/additional scenes that flesh out the characters. The short makes Olham a little more contradictory - he tells his wife that his project is a good thing, then he questions what he's doing with his friend at the Project. What's missing is the interminable chase that's been done better in innumerable films (see The Running Man for example). Vincent D'Onofrio is a particularly good villain who's not really a villain (or is he?)......................