An unemployed cameraman, Ron Kobeleski (Haggerty), is asked by his reclusive neighbor, a retired Marine named Walter Ohlinger (Barry) who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, to document a startling confession: that he, not Lee Harvey Oswald, killed President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.

"[3] Kehr praised Barry's portrayal of Ohlinger, describing him as "a performer who can dart between stentorian self-assurance and cringing pathos, maintaining his character's ambiguity until the final sequence of this resourceful and ingenious entertainment.

"[3] According to The Philadelphia Inquirer's Steven Rea, the film "is a compelling, unsettling meditation on the nature of history, identity and truth"; he favorably reviewed Barry's performance as "chillingly good".

"[5] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly compared its cinematography to The Blair Witch Project and described it as "a verite enigma-thriller, the pieces of which are more gripping than the finished puzzle.

"[7] The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday wrote that the movie was filmed in "the deadpan mockumentary style familiar to fans of This Is Spinal Tap and The Blair Witch Project.