Catch Me If You Can (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)

Catch Me If You Can (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)

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DVD details

• TESTED OK
• 2003 DATE

DVD Reviews of Catch Me If You Can (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)

DVD Review: Catch This Movie
Summary: 5 Stars

Frank Abagnale was obsessed with labels; not what they were for, but how they were perceived. Frank not only impersonated a pilot, doctor, and lawyer before his 25th birthday along with cashing millions of dollars in fraudulent checks, but got away with it. Why, because he made sure he was perceived the right way, had the right label. The 1960s America was much more trusting than today's and Frank couldn't have taken much more advantage of it. He was able to get information at ease, nobody questioning him why he wanted to know the detailed workings of both the airline and banking industry other than out of curiosity.

Spielberg would naturally be attracted to this project. It's a well documented fact that Spielberg grew up in a broken home and it had a vast impact on him as does Frank's parents divorce on him. More importantly, Spielberg was a bit of an impersonator himself as a teen. He snuck into a film lot as a teenage and pretended he worked there, I believe even having his own office. A couple years later he got a job there, at least an official one.

Frank Abagnale Jr.'s real love was for his parents and when their love isn't there anymore, his whole world crashes down on him. He was in awe of his father, Frank Sr. (Christopher Walken). They had the ideal life as Frank married the French sweetheart he found at the end of the war and he takes glory in reciting their story over and over. Walken gives a fantastic performance as Frank Sr., who gets in trouble with the IRS and his family forced to move from their comfy suburban home to a small apartment in the city. Frank's mother leaves them for a more successful man and instead of confronting his problem, Frank runs from it. He first starts cashing bad checks to live, but soon finds out he can get much farther when he remakes his image from a down and out runaway teen to an up and coming pilot. This was the jet-set age and flight was a relatively new thing and once Frank sees how high pilots are held in the public's view he knows exactly what to do.

But the key is that he still feels like he's a teenager playing a game and doesn't come across as urgent or uptight so he's relatively cool when confronting those in a position to break his scam. His charm throughout is his best weapon and he's a dead-eye shooter with it. He hardly has to lift a finger to get information out of people and takes advantage of their trust in either his youth or look. He effortlessly moves from one scam to the next once the previous one feels threatened by either the occupation or the government who is catching up to him or usually just boredom of the same old gag getting old.

Carl Hanratty (Hanks) seems to understand the mind of his prey. Hanks plays the character well and it's nice to see him in a role that can play off his freewheeling, humorous side. Hanratty has many close calls with Frank, the first where Hanratty had him in the same room but was fooled like so many before him. At first Abagnale loves it and relishes his near escape, until he realizes the only person he can have a truthful conversation with is Hanratty, which Hanratty uses to his advantage. He's closing in and Frank has to become that much more on his toes, which he takes as a challenge and meets it for the most part, but does become that much more frazzled.

The interplay between Hanks and DiCaprio is really fun to watch. They push each other to embrace their own characters that much more and it's a joy to view. DiCaprio's fun, charming Frank is the perfect balance to Hank's boring, straight-edged Carl. They soon become each other's only true conversation partner as Hanratty starts getting calls from Frank and he calls Frank's bluff and tells him straight out "you didn't have anyone else to call!". Hanratty is getting too close and Frank has to run, but he has nowhere to go for the most part. It's no longer a game and he's coming to see himself as a criminal, not a kid, and wants to get caught but at the same time can't let himself stop playing the game.

I was really impressed by DiCaprio's performance; same with Hanks. Both of them, along with director Steven Spielberg, seem effortless in their performance and the film comes across effortless to watch. The story flows well and you end up feeling for not only our lovable criminal, but also our plain federal agent, who ends up the only one who really cares for Frank, even after all the frustration he's brought him. The end may drag a bit, but it's doesn't take anything away from the film and the time isn't really wasted. John Williams provides a nice jazzy score to compliment what's on screen. A perfect holiday film that isn't out to blow you away, take to you a foreign land, or change your world, but to simply entertain the hell out of you and it succeeds perfectly in that department.

Description of Catch Me If You Can (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)