Movie Review for Catch Me if You Can
The trailer for "Catch Me If You Can" is so obvious it could have written itself. It informs us that Frank Abagnale Jr. practiced medicine without attending medical school, expert law without a law degree and passed equally a pilot without attending flying school--all for the excellent reason that he did all of these things earlier he was xix, and had non even graduated from high school.
That this is a truthful story probably goes without saying, since it is too preposterous to have been invented by a screenwriter. Abagnale also passed millions of dollars in artificial checks, dazzled women with his wealth and accomplishments, and was, a lot of the time, basically a sad and solitary teenager. At the time the only honest relationships in his life were with his father and with the FBI agent who was chasing him.
In Steven Spielberg'southward new film, Abagnale is played by Leonardo DiCaprio equally a young man who succeeds at his incredible impersonations by the unproblematic device of never seeming to endeavour very hard. While an airline employee might be suspicious of a very young-looking man who insists he is a pilot, what could be more disarming than a man offered a trip in the bound seat who confesses, "It's been awhile. Which one is the jump seat?" DiCaprio, who in recent films such every bit "The Beach" and "Gangs of New York" has played dark and troubled characters, is breezy and mannerly hither, playing a male child who discovers what he is proficient at, and does information technology. There is a kind of genius flowing in the scene where he turns up for classes at a new schoolhouse, walks into the classroom to observe that a substitute teacher is expected and, without missing a beat, writes his name on the blackboard, and tells the students to shut up and sit down down and tell him what chapter they're on.
Information technology is probably true that well-nigh people volition take y'all at face value until they have reason to exercise otherwise. I had a friend who had risen to a high level in her organization and was terrified her undercover would be discovered: She never attended college. My estimate, and it proved accurate, was that nobody would always think to inquire her. It is probably an even ameliorate guess that no patient in a hospital would inquire to see a md'south medical schoolhouse diploma.
The picture show makes some attempt to explain Abagnale's behavior through adolescent trauma. He is raised past loving parents; his father, Frank Sr. (Christopher Walken), brought his French mother, Paula (Nathalie Baye), back from Europe later on war machine service, and Frank Jr.'s childhood is a happy 1 until Paula cheats on her husband and walks out. Is that why her son was driven to impersonation and fraud? Possibly. Or maybe he would have anyway. Once he discovers how much he tin get away with, in that location is a certain heady exhilaration in how easily he finds condition, respect and babes.
The motion-picture show co-stars Tom Hanks as Carl Hanratty, an FBI agent whose mission in life evolves into capturing Abagnale. Equally the only person who actually has a comprehensive overview of the scope and versatility of Abagnale's activities, Hanratty develops--well, not an admiration, but a respect for a natural criminal talent. At that place is a scene where he actually has Abagnale at gunpoint in a motel room, and the child, a cool customer and quick thinker, tries impersonating a Secret Service agent who is also on the suspect's tail. Much of the pleasure of the film comes from its enjoyment of Abagnale's strategies. He doesn't seem to plan his cons very well, but to take advantage of opportunities that autumn in his way. At ane point, in New Orleans, he finds himself engaged to the daughter (Amy Adams) of the local commune attorney (Martin Sheen). At a dinner party with his prospective in-laws, he seems to contradict himself by claiming to exist both a doctor and a lawyer, when he doesn't look old plenty to be either. When the D.A. presses him for an explanation, there is a kind of genius in his guileless reply: "I passed the bar in California and practiced for a year before saying, 'Why not try out pediatrics?' " Uh-huh. And then he makes the mistake of saying he graduated from law school at Berkeley. Turns out the Sheen character did, as well, and quizzes him virtually a legendary professor before adding, "Does he nevertheless go everywhere with that little canis familiaris?" Here is where Abagnale's quickness saves him. Considering the 30-year historic period difference betwixt himself and the girl's male parent, he simply observes, "The canis familiaris died." Yes, although the professor may well accept died, too, and when the D.A. calls his bluff, he responds by existence honest (although that is sort of a lie, too).
This is not a major Spielberg film, although information technology is an effortlessly watchable one. Spielberg and his author, Jeff Nathanson, working from the memoir past the real Frank Abagnale Jr. and Stan Redding, don't strength matters or plumb for deep significance. The story is a adept story, directly told, and such meaning equally it has comes from the irony that the only person who completely appreciates Abagnale'due south accomplishments is the human trying to arrest him. At one point, when the beau calls the FBI agent, Hanratty cuts directly to the bespeak by observing, "You didn't take anyone else to call."
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.
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Catch Me If Yous Can (2002)
140 minutes
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