2003-01-07

I wasn't too interested when I first heard about this movie, mostly because I don't really care for Leonardo di Caprio. A little Titanic goes a long way. However, as soon as I saw the well-edited, clever preview, I was hooked.

Stephen Spielberg impressed me over the summer with Minority Report, and I was pleasantly surprised again with this movie. The main reasons that I liked Catch Me If You Can were that it had an interesting storyline and that the acting was excellent. I even liked Mr. di Caprio, so help me God.

I know this was billed as a comedy, and many of the scenes were funny, but in essence it was a pretty sad story. For those of you who have managed to avoid the ubiquitous ads and trailers, here's the plot in a nutshell: Frank Abagnale Jr. (di Caprio) is 16 years old. He runs away from home and begins defrauding all sorts of people for a lot of money, by pretending to be a pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer. The only real relationship he has after a few years of this life is with Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), the FBI agent who is chasing him. That's it. That's the story. The weird thing is that it's based on true events. Apparently parts of the original story were exaggerated for the movie, but the essence of it is true: there really was (and is) a Frank, and he really did get away with pretending to be all of those things.

While I was watching, I kept thinking about how all of Frank's frauds would have been a lot harder to pull off nowadays, because technology has made fraud more difficult. People are also a lot more security conscious. In one scene, Frank asks a real airline pilot if he can have a photocopy of his FAA license for the story that he's supposedly writing for his school newspaper. The pilot says, why, Frank can KEEP that license...it's expired, anyway. I highly doubt that would happen in these security-minded times.

The thing that hasn't changed much, however, is the extent to which people are willing to take others at face value. I mean, have you ever asked to see your doctor's med school certificate? Didn't think so. Frank's story is a bit extreme, but there have been many other cases where people have pretended to be doctors when they weren't, or said they had certain qualifications when they didn't. I don't think it's that uncommon.

What I found sad about the movie was the fact that Frank and Carl were both pretty lonely people. Frank longed for his family to be "perfect" the way it was before his dad (the always-excellent Christopher Walken) was busted for tax fraud and his mom left to marry someone rich. The only girl Frank actually has a meaningful relationship with betrays him to the authorities (she's under duress, mind you, but the effect is still the same). Carl, on the other hand, is divorced from his wife and estranged from his daughter. He's such a sad sack that he actually volunteers to work on Christmas Eve. Therefore, it's not surprising that the best part of this movie is the relationship that forms between Frank and Carl.

Visually speaking, the movie is pitch-perfect. The period 1960s detail is excellent, and the opening title sequence, with stylized animated stick figures, recalls the movies of that period, as does the score by John Williams. I particularly liked the use of Frank Sinatra's "Come Fly With Me."

My main complaint with this movie involves a typical Spielberg problem: the man just does not know when enough is enough. In the last three movies by him that I have seen (AI: Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report, and Catch Me If You Can), he follows up a scene that you think is the climax with...yet another scene that seems like it's the climax, and then...another. It's just too much. End the damned movie already! The other thing the film suffered from was a lack of consistent dramatic tension. The pacing seemed strange; at times, the film moved very quickly, but at others, it seemed to drag. I think that it was partly due to the fact that Spielberg included too many of Frank's capers. I can see why; the story is fantastic and a lot of fun. However, it would have been better to chop about 20 minutes off the 140 minute (!) running time.

However, I can't really say I was bored during the movie. The storyline is interesting, the themes are strong, and the acting is good enough to keep one's attention throughout. Leonardo di Caprio actually did a very good job of creating an engaging character whom you really root for throughout the movie. Christopher Walken lends a sense of sad bravado to his role as the dad whose life is also one scam after another, and who knows he could succeed if only the damn government didn't keep putting up obstacles. The only thing I didn't like about Tom Hanks' role in the movie was his terrible Boston accent. Get a dialogue coach, man!

Overall, the components of Catch Me If You Can were all very good, but there was something flawed about the actual movie as a whole. Still, I'd recommend it. It's very entertaining, and at the very least, it will give you pause for thought the next time you get on an airplane, go to the emergency room, or get legal representation.

Posted by polarcanuck at 8:16 p.m.

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