Catch Me If You Can
Created | Updated Jul 1, 2004
Who hasn't had the fantasy of assuming a new identity? Of becoming a doctor? A lawyer? A game show host? Catch Me If You Can presents us with Frank Abagnale, Jr., a young man who lives out the fantasies that the rest of us can only dream about.
What makes Frank such an interesting character is that he isn't presented as a villain, yet he's not presented as a hero, either. It would be easy to see Frank as an exciting anti-hero, someone who bucks the establishment, and actually does things instead of just talk about them, if not for the scene that occurs the very first time he assumes a new identity. When Frank is posing as a substitute French teacher, the real substitute comes in, and is nearly in tears because she's traveled all this way and spent all this money on transportation for nothing. From this point on, no matter what exciting, thrilling things Frank does, the audience will always remember that Frank's actions do harm people, and that while Frank himself may not be cruel, his actions do lead to pain, and do hurt more than just a bank's financial situation. However, Frank is presented in such a way that, for all his faults, the audience knows that he hasn't set out to injure others, and, in that way, he isn't cruel - he's just a teenager with a lot of imagination, and a lot of different identities.
What makes this movie work best is that fact that it's presented in a light-hearted manner. It doesn't take itself too seriously, yet it's still more than just punchlines and pratfalls. The credit for this can go to Leonardo DiCaprio, an actor primarily known for taking on serious roles (Titanic, The Beach, Gangs of New York). In this instance, though, DiCaprio is dead-on with his comic timing, creating a character that the audience can empathize with, even though his actions (lying, forging checks, posing as a doctor) are, in and of themselves, quite reprehensible. We know Frank is breaking numerous laws (and quite a few hearts) along the way, and we know that he's a high school dropout with serious issues, but he's still an awe-inspiring figure, someone who we may not approve of, but someone who we can't entirely fault, either.
Still, through DiCaprio, we do see the dark side of what Frank does, such as in the scene with the substitute teacher. Though Frank Abagnale doesn't set out to act with malice, he still can't avoid injuring people along the way, namely his fiancée, Brenda.
Does Frank truly love Brenda, or is she just a means to an end? The movie never makes this quite clear, but maybe that's because the answer was never quite clear to Frank, either. Frank takes time to explain himself to Brenda, begging her to understand and to meet him at the airport, so, at least on some level, he must care about her, aside from whatever she was able to do to help him become ensconced in New Orleans society.
Brenda also seems to be the only person with whom Frank truly connects with during this time (other than FBI agent Carl Hanratty). The fact that Brenda sided with the FBI, and not Frank, must have been quite a blow to him as he expected to leave the country with her and settle down, finally beginning a life that wasn't based on lie on top of lie, only to discover that she had chosen to aid the FBI in his capture at the Miami Airport. How this affected Frank and his future actions is a topic that isn't really pursued, and viewers are left to wonder if Frank became more cynical after the situation with Brenda, or if he just considered her the latest in a long line of people who were torn away from him due to his lies.
One relationship that is fairly fleshed out is the one between Frank and Carl Hanratty. Their cat-and-mouse game over almost half a decade is well-portrayed, as neither man is shown to be the villain, nor the incompetent blunderer. These two men come across as kindred souls, who just happen to be on opposite sides of the law.
Carl has true insight into what makes Frank tick when he quickly surmises that Frank called him on Christmas Eve because Frank had no one else to call. For all his money, and all his intelligence, and the gaggle of beautiful flight attendant that followed him around, the only person Frank had to call was the FBI agent who had sworn to bring him to justice. A sense of sadness surrounds this fact, and seems to enforce the belief that money doesn't buy happiness.
Catch Me If You Can excels in the fact that it manages to present a believable friendship between Frank and Carl, from the very beginning. Frank has eluded capture so often that Carl would have been quite justified in letting the French police do with Frank what they wanted, but Carl acts as the better man, protecting Frank when he has no reason to.
Tom Hanks (as Carl Hanratty) is the perfect counterpart to Leonardo DiCaprio's Frank Abagnale. They play well off each other, and Carl, on some level, seems to provide Frank with the paternal relationship he was never able to have with his own father.
Even with the small parts in this movie, the casting is excellently done. Jennifer Garner has only a couple small scenes as the model-turned-hooker Cheryl, and yet she's still able to forge a believable connection with Frank. One can imagine that Cheryl is almost as much a schemer as Frank, and while she may have lived a completely different life than him, she can still understand the things he's gone through that have brought him to this point in life.
At its heart, Catch Me If You Can wonderfully intertwines comedy, drama, romance, and action to present a tale that, while based on a true story, probably has quite a bit of fiction added in as well, but is still able to touch a part of every viewer. Frank Abagnale has lived out the fantasies of almost every dreamer, and, through this movie, we are also able to live out our dreams, if only for a little while.
On my personal scale of 1 to 5 popcorn pieces (5 being "A Must-See," 1 being "A Must-Miss"), I give Catch Me If You Can 5 popcorn pieces.
Credits: Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. Written by Jeff Nathanson. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Running time 140 minutes. Rated PG-13.
-Chimene Mata
What makes Frank such an interesting character is that he isn't presented as a villain, yet he's not presented as a hero, either. It would be easy to see Frank as an exciting anti-hero, someone who bucks the establishment, and actually does things instead of just talk about them, if not for the scene that occurs the very first time he assumes a new identity. When Frank is posing as a substitute French teacher, the real substitute comes in, and is nearly in tears because she's traveled all this way and spent all this money on transportation for nothing. From this point on, no matter what exciting, thrilling things Frank does, the audience will always remember that Frank's actions do harm people, and that while Frank himself may not be cruel, his actions do lead to pain, and do hurt more than just a bank's financial situation. However, Frank is presented in such a way that, for all his faults, the audience knows that he hasn't set out to injure others, and, in that way, he isn't cruel - he's just a teenager with a lot of imagination, and a lot of different identities.
What makes this movie work best is that fact that it's presented in a light-hearted manner. It doesn't take itself too seriously, yet it's still more than just punchlines and pratfalls. The credit for this can go to Leonardo DiCaprio, an actor primarily known for taking on serious roles (Titanic, The Beach, Gangs of New York). In this instance, though, DiCaprio is dead-on with his comic timing, creating a character that the audience can empathize with, even though his actions (lying, forging checks, posing as a doctor) are, in and of themselves, quite reprehensible. We know Frank is breaking numerous laws (and quite a few hearts) along the way, and we know that he's a high school dropout with serious issues, but he's still an awe-inspiring figure, someone who we may not approve of, but someone who we can't entirely fault, either.
Still, through DiCaprio, we do see the dark side of what Frank does, such as in the scene with the substitute teacher. Though Frank Abagnale doesn't set out to act with malice, he still can't avoid injuring people along the way, namely his fiancée, Brenda.
Does Frank truly love Brenda, or is she just a means to an end? The movie never makes this quite clear, but maybe that's because the answer was never quite clear to Frank, either. Frank takes time to explain himself to Brenda, begging her to understand and to meet him at the airport, so, at least on some level, he must care about her, aside from whatever she was able to do to help him become ensconced in New Orleans society.
Brenda also seems to be the only person with whom Frank truly connects with during this time (other than FBI agent Carl Hanratty). The fact that Brenda sided with the FBI, and not Frank, must have been quite a blow to him as he expected to leave the country with her and settle down, finally beginning a life that wasn't based on lie on top of lie, only to discover that she had chosen to aid the FBI in his capture at the Miami Airport. How this affected Frank and his future actions is a topic that isn't really pursued, and viewers are left to wonder if Frank became more cynical after the situation with Brenda, or if he just considered her the latest in a long line of people who were torn away from him due to his lies.
One relationship that is fairly fleshed out is the one between Frank and Carl Hanratty. Their cat-and-mouse game over almost half a decade is well-portrayed, as neither man is shown to be the villain, nor the incompetent blunderer. These two men come across as kindred souls, who just happen to be on opposite sides of the law.
Carl has true insight into what makes Frank tick when he quickly surmises that Frank called him on Christmas Eve because Frank had no one else to call. For all his money, and all his intelligence, and the gaggle of beautiful flight attendant that followed him around, the only person Frank had to call was the FBI agent who had sworn to bring him to justice. A sense of sadness surrounds this fact, and seems to enforce the belief that money doesn't buy happiness.
Catch Me If You Can excels in the fact that it manages to present a believable friendship between Frank and Carl, from the very beginning. Frank has eluded capture so often that Carl would have been quite justified in letting the French police do with Frank what they wanted, but Carl acts as the better man, protecting Frank when he has no reason to.
Tom Hanks (as Carl Hanratty) is the perfect counterpart to Leonardo DiCaprio's Frank Abagnale. They play well off each other, and Carl, on some level, seems to provide Frank with the paternal relationship he was never able to have with his own father.
Even with the small parts in this movie, the casting is excellently done. Jennifer Garner has only a couple small scenes as the model-turned-hooker Cheryl, and yet she's still able to forge a believable connection with Frank. One can imagine that Cheryl is almost as much a schemer as Frank, and while she may have lived a completely different life than him, she can still understand the things he's gone through that have brought him to this point in life.
At its heart, Catch Me If You Can wonderfully intertwines comedy, drama, romance, and action to present a tale that, while based on a true story, probably has quite a bit of fiction added in as well, but is still able to touch a part of every viewer. Frank Abagnale has lived out the fantasies of almost every dreamer, and, through this movie, we are also able to live out our dreams, if only for a little while.
On my personal scale of 1 to 5 popcorn pieces (5 being "A Must-See," 1 being "A Must-Miss"), I give Catch Me If You Can 5 popcorn pieces.
Credits: Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. Written by Jeff Nathanson. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Running time 140 minutes. Rated PG-13.
-Chimene Mata
