The Man with a Thousand Faces

Director: Sonia Kronlund

Another year, another documentary about an unscrupulous man cheating lots of women. Badged as a Tinder Swindler-type documentary, Sonia Kronlund’s The Man with a Thousand Faces is the result of several years of investigation with the targeted women in Frances and Poland by the filmmaker and a private detective firm hired to locate him. While viewers may hope for salacious revelations and a finale confrontation, Kronlund’s film instead becomes a giant wanted poster designed largely as a warning to other women if they meet the man in question.

As ever, this is a fascinating story, a man of South American origin who fools multiple women into having relationships with him. Sometimes he pretends to be a doctor, sometimes a car engineer among other professional roles, padding his lies with photos and a credible trail of ‘evidence’ that his girlfriends, their families and friends find believable. That he is conducting several relationships at the same time comes as no surprise to the viewer and the scale of the deception is both impressive and clearly deeply upsetting for the women interviewed.

Kronlund’s films though is less clear on its eventual purpose only lightly covering the financial implications of these relationships or the perpetrators overall motivation. We are told that some of the women take out loans yet the film suggests he uses those to buy gifts and trips for other partners. Likewise, a trip to Brazil in the final Act tracks down an early fling who caught him stealing light objects from her home which again is implied he gave as presents, but it is unclear what the man himself has taken from this and why. Does he still have money accepted from the women, did it fund other parts of his lifestyle and what is his purpose – money or the thrill of deceiving multiple women?

The scale of operation of The Man with a Thousand Faces is interesting and vast but the detail is often a little coy, making Kronlund’s eventual conclusion both underwhelming and confusing. Kronlund and the private detective concoct a ruse to bring the target to a location to film him for another purpose, but once there, they choose not to confront him at all, only exerting a strange punishment on the man whose activities are certainly not mitigated by this course of action. There is, of course, dramatic irony in being in cahoots with the filmmaker but there is no actual resolution or true vindication for the women he has cheated and cheated on. The man and the viewer just go on as before.

Kronlund has clearly put in a lot of research and proves a deeply sympathetic ear to the women she meets and spends a little time agonising over whether to name him with potential legal ramifications. But The Man with a Thousand Face can only tell the story and sound the alarm, it cannot bring the justice his victims or the audience are looking for.

The Man with a Thousand Faces is in UK cinemas from 22nd November.