Catch Me If You Can (2002)
The Cast
Leonardo DiCaprio ... Frank Abagnale Jr.
Tom Hanks ... Carl Hanratty
Christopher Walken ... Frank Abagnale
Martin Sheen ... Roger Strong
Nathalie Baye ... Paula Abagnale
Amy Adams ... Brenda Strong
James Brolin ... Jack Barnes
Jennifer Garner ... Cheryl Ann
Ellen Pompeo ... Marci
Elizabeth Banks ... Lucy
James Morrison ... Pilot
Amy Acker ... Miggy
Sometimes it's hard for me to sit down and write a review for a movie that's five years old. Generally I find some hook or tell an anecdote about some related event, or sometimes I just resort to ... well this. I mention that I can't find a hook to explain why I'm writing a review for a movie that's five years old. And then I go into the review. This is one of the reasons why I'm not a professional writer or anything like that. I watched this Steven Spielberg-directed movie because a co-worker recently lent me Frank Abagnale Jr.'s autobiography on which the movie is based. Truth is, I've been looking for some viable reason to watch this movie again for a long time.
Catch Me If You Can was the movie that I didn't really want to like when I first had the opportunity to see it. At the time I was in a "Leonardo is a pretty boy no-talent" phase and thought Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg were semi-overrated. This is one of the movies that I will give credit to when it comes to my maturation as a serious movie watcher. There's so many little things and choices made by the various cast members and Spielberg that just end up combining into one enjoyable and light chase picture. Perhaps I shouldn't use the word "light", as there's definitely a lot to this movie, but you just never have that feeling that it's anything truly serious.
DiCaprio stars as Frank Abagnale Jr., a man that faked his way into becoming a pilot and passed millions of dollars worth of bad cheques all before his 19th birthday. Carl Hanratty (Hanks) is the FBI agent that is following the paper trail that's quickly developing in Abagnale's wake. At first Hanratty doesn't even know who he's chasing after, that is until he catches a lucky break and actually comes face to face with Abagnale and finally has his target identified. Even after that electric scene, the movie never becomes a taut tension-filled cheer for the bad guy type of movie. After all, none of the crimes Abagnale commits are mean-spirited or anything, just taking advantage of legal loopholes so to speak. He never truly feels like a criminal, just as Hanratty never truly feels like a bad guy from the government trying to bring to justice this charming rogue Abagnale.
It would be foolish of me not to mention the rest of the supporting cast on this movie. Christopher Walken received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance as the senior Frank Abagnale, and it's certainly a worthy performance to recognise. I could just recite the cast list and mention how wonderful the actors and actresses were, that's how good Spielberg is as a director. Some of the bigger names on that cast list were just pretty faces back then, and it's amazing to see how far they've come since that time. For example, I had no idea that the "braces nurse" was Amy Adams. Back then I might've researched the name or something, but I didn't realise that it was that Amy Adams, if you follow what I'm saying. She wasn't Amy Adams back then. Never mind.
In a way the movie feels like a smaller Spielberg film, not like the usual EVENT movies that he used to always make. It's beautifully filmed, has an Oscar-nominated Score by John Williams (when doesn't he get an Oscar nomination?), the cast is wonderful and talented, the scenes flow amazingly well, the story is excellent and so on and on. I feel like I should deduct points from the lack of tension in what should be a tension-filled movie, but that's just the genre it was shoehorned into. Truth is, it's an exception to the rule and a wonderfully entertaining couple of hours to spend watching.
5 / 5
jasona1's review of Catch Me If You Can