Catch Me If You Can Review

by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)
December 30th, 2002

Catch Me If You Can

Full Price Feature

Spielberg is the least appreciated and most finely tunes craftsman American storyteller in the film industry. Not only can he present a narrative with carefully timed pacing and verbal content, he also is a master of visual shorthand and slyly summarizing a sociological or emergent situation to add depth and context. Granted, Spielberg himself invented much of the modern visual lexicon of movies - building on the already-vast foundations built during the silent era and by Alfred Hitchcock (and others, I don't mean to oversimplify). Catch Me If You Can begins with the single most efficient expository scene I have ever seen that is still completely and totally plausible, and goes on to tell a fascinating and true story in just over two hours using all his tools of creativity to the fullest.

Spielberg's frequent collaborators John Williams and Janusz Kaminski provide more subliminal contributions to Catch Me If You Can's communicative brilliance. Every frame is flush with glowy, dreamlike light - individual lights throw off auras and windows flood a room with white radiance. Williams' yummy, atypical score is part Mancini/Bacharach, part John Adams, and all cool. From the opening credits (you can get a taste on the film's official site) to the way-60's swoopy futuristic locations, the whole blend of the film is deeply beautiful. But it's not the look and feel that makes it a great film - it's the steady clip of the story and the wonderful balance of the relationship between Frank Abagnale Jr (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) that makes Catch Me If You Can such a delight.

The story is simply this: Frank Abagnale was a teenager who posed as a variety of specialized professions and passed millions of dollars of counterfeit checks over a period of a few years. Carl Hanratty (not his real name) was the FBI agent who chased him and caught him. It's not just a crook/cop movie: Frank's actions are criminal, but brilliant, and his targets are deep, deep pockets. Carl's chase is amazingly close considering Frank's expertise, and a fascinating dynamic of mutual respect grows between them; not quite trust, but ultimately they have a deeper connection than just predator and prey.

Such crimes could only have happened in that crossroads between the trusting, old-fashioned past where a man's word was good enough to get him through most troubles, and the technologically exploding modern world, where counterfeiters have greater and greater resources as well as bigger traps to avoid. Carl belongs to the past, and as an agent specializing in check fraud, he no doubt sees this heightened unscrupulousness as belonging to the younger generations. Frank didn't start out looking to be a major international felon; it just sort of happened. His own keen intelligence led him to the only options that seemed viable for his goals. It just so happens that it is against the law. Spielberg slips in commentary on societal ignorance, trustworthiness, and fiscal sociopathy between the prodigious feats of lawlessness on the part of Abagnale, Jr. He also capitalizes on the childlike glee we experience watching someone beat the system.

Some people have complained about Leonardo DiCaprio being in this film, and despite the one-two quality punch of Hanks and Spielberg, are saying they would skip the film because of Leo. Don't be that guy! It's unfair enough that backlash from Titanic, 5 years ago, should have followed this young man this far; don't forget his other work, like What's Eating Gilbert Grape. This role is a tough one to cast. The actor being Frank has to be young enough to pass for a teenager in high school, but old enough to be a believable, albeit young adult professional. And he has to be very appealing to the ladies. I can't think of many actors with these qualifications. Jon Cryer, 5 years ago, maybe one or two other people. Frank has to be confident but still scared, old and young, and it's an acting challenge. It's a challenge met and conquered by Leo. Don't miss it.

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These reviews (c) 2002 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but just credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks.
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