director
Steven Spielberg
screenwriter
Jeff Nathanson
based on
the book by
Frank W. Abagnale
Stan Redding
producers
Walter F. Parkes
Steven Spielberg
cinematographer
Janusz Kaminski
music
John Williams
editor
Michael Kahn
cast
Leonardo DiCaprio (Frank Abagnale, Jr)
Tom Hanks (Carl Hanratty)
Christopher Walken (Frank Abagnale, Sr)
Jennifer Garner (Cheryl Ann)
Amy Adams (Brenda)
Martin Sheen (Brenda's Father)
Frank John Hughes (Tom Fox)
Brian Howe (Earl Amdursky)
mpaa rating: PG-13
running
time: 140m
u.s.
release: 12/25/02
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
official
website
other steven
spielberg films
reviewed on this website:
- a.i.:
artificial intelligence
- amistad
- close
encounters of the third kind
- e.t.
(special edition, 2002)
- jurassic
park
- the
lost world: jurassic park
- minority
report
- munich
- saving
private ryan
- schindler's
list
- the
terminal
- war
of the worlds
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It maybe could've used some
tightening, but Catch Me If You Can is still the most
purely fun Steven Spielberg film since his incredible
decade-long streak as a master entertainer (from, say, 1975 to
1985, when he started yearning to sit at the grown-up table with
The Color Purple). There's nothing in particular riding
on the movie, no stentorian tributes to historical courage; it's
just Spielberg larking -- it's not important. (Even last
summer's enjoyable Minority
Report unfurled Big Statements about privacy and the
future of law enforcement.) And the movie's very lightness has
freed up Spielberg, made him a looser and more generous director
than we've witnessed in some time.
Based on Frank W. Abagnale's
memoir, the film tracks young Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) from
age sixteen as he flits around putting on and discarding identities
with the casual breeziness and imperturbable suavity of a born
con man. His antics, which include forging millions of dollars'
worth of checks and posing as an airline pilot, a doctor, and
a lawyer, catch the eye of FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks),
a grim, businesslike bear (Hanks makes him humorously humorless)
who makes it his life's work to catch Frank. The movie, for all
its location shifts and elaborate scams, is essentially a feature-length
chase, which puts it in the league of early single-minded Spielberg
entries like Duel and especially The Sugarland Express.
If you plan on seeing both
Gangs
of New York and Catch Me If You Can this season,
do yourself a favor and take in Gangs first; then settle
in for Catch Me and rediscover Leonardo DiCaprio the actor.
Disgruntled and one-note in Gangs, DiCaprio opens up wide
in Catch Me, having obvious fun that he doesn't hesitate
to share. He's basically playing an actor -- a kid bold enough
to sell strangers on whichever persona he's trying on -- and
DiCaprio glows with the sneaky joy of imposture. His scenes with
Christopher Walken, gainfully cast against type as Frank's loving
dad, flow with an affectionate intimacy that caught me by surprise.
When Frank impersonates a substitute French teacher and his parents
are called in, Walken's expressions -- when he finds out what
the kid's been up to, and when he can't suppress a grin at his
son -- speak volumes: Frank is a more successful chip off the
old block.
This is a classic Spielberg
film in spirit and theme, but not in style. With Schindler's List, Spielberg made two
major changes in his familiar approach: He dropped his usual
tics like dolly shots and Close
Encounters backlighting, and he took on cinematographer
Janusz Kaminski, who's been with him for almost a decade now.
Catch Me If You Can is Spielberg's most colorful film
in years -- certainly not the monochromatic blue of Minority
Report -- and it's shot with soft filters and relaxed compositions
that recall the movies of the period (the mid- to late-'60s).
The movie feels a little long here and there, particularly in
the segment dealing with Frank's engagement to a fresh-faced
Atlanta blonde (Amy Adams), but it still goes like a shot without
seeming rushed. Making a movie about a wunderkind of deception,
Spielberg must've tapped into his old self, the big-fibber and
fantasist who told great lies like Jaws and Close Encounters
and made us believe them.
The movie is a good time. It
not only produces happiness, it is happy. It buzzes with
the pleasure of people -- on camera and behind it, in and out
of screen character -- who are damn good at what they do and
love doing it. Even the stoic Carl Hanratty gets a contact high
from Frank's sheer daring, and gets electrified by the possibility
that he may finally have an adversary worth the chase. Hanratty
moves heaven and earth to bring the kid to book but, on some
level, can't help loving Frank's ingenuity and skill. Neither
can Spielberg. Catch Me If You Can is not an intensely
personal film for Spielberg. That's what's so good about it.
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