The best way to describe the criminal years of Frank Abagnale, Jr., is to compare him to Robin Hood. Until his mid-teens, Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) had led a life of privilege in the early sixties. His father, Frank, Sr. (Christopher Walken), owned a stationery store, and was a respected member of his Rotary Club. His business allowed young Frank to attend a private school in the New York community where they lived. However, Mr. Abagnale owes taxes, and has to sell his car and home to defray the debt to the IRS. His son must, as a result, enroll in a public school. Also, his wife, Paula (Nathalie Baye), leaves him for Jack Barnes (James Brolin), another member of the Rotary Club. After they divorce, Frank, Jr., continues to live with his father, who teaches the teen about presentation and persuasion as Frank, Sr., convinces a clothing store clerk to open early to buy his son a suit.
Frank, Jr., likes that sort of authority, and puts it to use at school. When his French teacher gets sick, he substitutes for an entire week before he's caught. His real life of crime, though, begins when he gets a checking account with $25 in it from his father. In Steven Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can," young Frank runs away from home, depletes the funds, but he uses his charm and a few simple questions to create the illusion that he's a pilot for Pan Am. He invents the alias of Frank Taylor, and even makes bogus payroll checks for himself. Part of his plan involves sending some of the money back to his father, who has had to close his store and take work as a postal carrier. Not only does the boy want to put him back on his feet, but he hopes the money will reconcile the difference between his parents. The amounts are never enough to make the fraud immediately obvious, but soon, Pan Am discovers the fraud, and FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), the Bureau's top counterfeiting agent, is on the trail of Frank Taylor. He eludes Hanratty in a nick of time and reinvents himself as Dr. Frank Conners, a physician supervisor at a Georgia hospital, and a Harvard med school graduate. There, he delegates, letting his hand-picked staff use their best judgment.
While at the hospital, he meets a candy striper named Brenda Strong (Amy Adams), who's very shy and self-conscious at first. She responds to his kindness, though, and soon, the two find themselves in love. She takes him home to her parents in Louisiana. Her father, Roger (Martin Sheen), is the local prosecutor. Frank knows Hanratty, who now knows Frank's face, still pursues, so he decides it's best to change careers again. He passes the Louisiana bar exam, goes to work for Roger, and makes plans to marry Brenda. On their wedding night, Hanratty comes to the reception in the hopes of arresting Frank, but Frank slips away again. He tells Brenda the truth and arranges to meet her in Miami, but the FBI awaits, so Frank finds a way to elude their trap and fly to France. That does not stop Hanratty from plotting to extradite Frank.
"Catch Me If You Can," which is based on the account written by Abagnale and Stan Redding, is one of the most humorous and exciting heist capers of recent years. The longer the caper runs (it ran a total of five years), the more the adversarial line blurs between Frank, Jr. and Carl. They learn during the pursuit that they're not really all that different from one another. Both are parts of families who are divorced. Carl has a young daughter he seldom sees because his work is so consuming. Every year at Christmas, Frank puts in a call to Carl at the Bureau to wish him a happy holiday. While Hanratty never gives up on the quest to see justice served, he comes, in a way, to admire the young man and to understand his adversary's motives. The later parts of the film show what came from this caper. Screenwriter Jeff Nathanson always respects the serious nature of Abagnale's offenses, but he also respects that the entire caper never resulted in physical harm to anybody.
DiCaprio brings that spirited and resourceful young man to life in his best performance since "What's Eating Gilbert Grape." He is both brash and kind. On one hand, Frank buys himself a life full of extravagances, even though he has to enjoy this life on the run. Yet, with Brenda, he remembers that he's just a boy with the usual teenage desires, including the desire to belong. If there's anything I wish this film had included, it's that it had definitively said what had become of Brenda. One scene late in the movie hints at what might have happened, but I wanted a little more closure. Hanks continues to provide standout work as Hanratty, the wise but dutiful FBI man. He is to counterfeiting what Clarice Starling and Will Graham are to serial killing.. Carl thinks like Frank, and then tries to anticipate Frank's next move. In the end, he proves to be both an adversary and a friend. With the horn-rimmed glasses and porkpie hat, Hanks disappears into the man he portrays. Walken once again delivers as Frank, Sr., a man whose troubles have exposed him as a weak man. Yet, he always has warmth and advice for the boy who bears his name. Adams is sweet and charming as Brenda, the girl who loves Frank, but has no idea until the end about the secrets he keeps.
After a series of films that explore the dark side of human nature ("Schindler's List," "Saving Private Ryan," and "Minority Report," among others), Steven Spielberg returns to the lighter fare that made him famous. He shows he has not lost that light touch. In the scene where Frank, Sr., wants a store to open early, he shows his son how to turn on the charm. Spielberg makes "Catch Me If You Can" looks like many a film that was made in the sixties, so much so that it looks like it could have been made forty years ago. Spielberg's usual collaborators, cinematographer Janusz Kaminski and composer John Williams, do their parts to help. Kaminski makes the proceedings bright, beautiful, and alluring. Williams adds a nice, light score that is much unlike the majestic scores he has provided for Spielberg in the past. These three men make their teamwork seem effortless.
"Catch Me If You Can" is a story that shows that crime doesn't pay in more ways than one. The story does not focus on the obvious, but on the price that is paid in human costs. Frank Abagnale, Jr., could not stay in any one place at one time, and could never keep in touch with his loved ones for more than a few moments at a time. Young Frank may have been a Robin Hood, but he had no Sherwood Forest or band of merry men. He led a life where pleasure often had to be acquired on a to go basis. Still, he found a way to have fun while he was on the go. One big part of the fun he had was the chase. In the chase, though, Frank Abagnale, Jr., did not understand one important lesson about money. He assumed it was a cure for all of the problems in his life. Instead, Frank created a whole new set of problems for himself. "Catch Me If You Can" is very engaging every step of the way. More importantly, it is, ultimately, a very rewarding film experience. Catch this one while you can.
Based on the extraordinary true story of a brilliant young master of deception and the FBI agent hot on his trail, Catch Me If You Can stars Oscar -no...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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