(2010) Canada, France. 105 min
Director: Jean-Paul Salome
Production Company: Lightning Entertainment
Cast: Ellen Barkin, Nick Stahl, Famke Janssen , Marc-Andre Grondin, Emilie de Ravin
Rating: A-
Dear Ellen Barkin,
In your role as middle-aged Southerner Kimberly Barclay in The Chameleon, there is a powerful scene in which she uses a dirty syringe to inject drugs into a vein in her foot. The drugs flow straight into her blood stream for a level of euphoria well worth the risk. She grips the bed sheets, shakes uncontrollably, and mouths foul words to her son as he watches. Kim injects herself in a run-down apartment/hotel room adjacent to the apartment she actually lives in, reflecting her conflicting interests and unwillingness to commit to sanity.
Your character is so unstable; she is so strung-out; she is so helpless. And you portray each emotion in a way that makes me have some sense of sympathy for this tragic character even though I didn’t want to at many times throughout the course of the well-executed film.
That scene does more than draw attention to the fact that Kim is a drug addict. Although I counted the number of times you appear on screen without a cigarette in your hand (I counted only 2), Kim’s addiction extends further than recreational drug usage. It also represents her unwavering loyalty to the life and memory of her son Nicholas, who appears to be found in France four years after his disappearance from home in 1996 at the tender age of 12. It is only after we learn that Kim knew all along that the boy claiming to be Nicholas is not her real son, when we can allow ourselves to imagine the rationale behind her actions.
To be completely honest, I do not believe I have ever seen a film with you in it. I haven’t seen you in Ocean’s Thirteen (2007) nor have I seen you in Shit Year (2009). But judging from your performance in The Chameleon, I have more than enough evidence to praise your work as a versatile actress who takes her craft seriously. You get gritty and unglamorous for a portrayal of a layered woman juggling many roles in her life: childless mother, drug abuser, and worker.
The Chameleon, based on a true story, opens with the FBI calling off its search of a missing boy in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana area in 2006. The boy is Kim’s son—Nicholas Barclay. We then flashback to the year 2000, when French police find a young boy fitting Nicholas’s description. He doesn’t talk for weeks, but when he does, he drops a bombshell: that he is Nicholas and he was abducted by a group of men before being beaten, tortured, and raped.
This gruesome discovery, which should be a cause for celebration for Kim, her daughter Kathy, and her son Brendon, ends up being a mysterious and less-than-enthusiastic event. Although the boy who claims to be Nicholas fits the physical description of the same Nicholas that first went missing, Kim is the family member who seems to be the most unemotional and distant. She greets Nicholas or “Nicki” at the airport with a cigarette in tote, a discerning look, and a nonchalant attitude; a troubling homecoming of a missing son by a grief stricken mother. She doesn’t even allow Nicki to move in with her; he has to stay with his sister Kathy.
But the overall attitude with which you tackle the character and the smug, sarcastic way Kim continues to talk to Nicki expresses an undercurrent of an inauthentic mother-son relationship. Combine this with the fact that we get a glimpse into the year 2006, in which authorities are still searching the area for a missing boy, and there is reason for the audience to speculate that maybe Nicki isn’t who he says he is at all. Audience members share the same suspicions of Nicki’s identity as no-nonsense FBI agent Jennifer Johnson (Famke Jenson), who launches an investigation to confirm his identity.
Jennifer finds that the boy is a storied imposter and Frenchman named Fredrick Forten, who changed his appearance and accent to fit Nicki’s description. But why would the entire family continue to put on a show as if he is the real Nicki when they are sure it isn’t him? This inquiry frames not only the plot, but also frames the audience’s understanding of Kim.
But your character refuses any and every attempt to corroborate Nicki’s identity. Kim is convinced (or at least forces herself to be convinced) that the boy found is indeed Nicholas; she begins to warm up to Nicki, allowing him to stay with her for a while. Here, your acting is spot on as the audience begins to warm up to your character after we learn Kim’s motivations for her contradictory behavior; maybe Kim’s love for Nicki overshadows whether or not the boy found is the real Nicki. Kim accepts the boy as her son for the simple fact that she was missing a child and needed a son to love and fill that huge void.
Even when Kim knows Nicki is not Nicki but Fredrick, she takes him to a place dear to her heart, and a place where she is said to go and “look for Nicki” every day—the Bayou. Kim seems to find closure in the forested, swampy area. The Bayou is symbolic of a type of rehabilitation center. Kim goes there to get treatment for her addiction to the memory of Nicki; however, at the film’s conclusion, we understand that her addiction cannot be cured.
Again, Ellen Barkin, you deserve all the recognition and acclaim given to you for your riveting performance in The Chameleon. You turn an ordinary drama into a titillating film about a woman who will do anything to get her son back. Kim Barclay at her core is representative of any mother, and this is a key chord you strike through your portrayal of her.
With much appreciation,
Eric Jones
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