18) Catch Me If You Can
When you watch as many movies as I do, you start to notice trends among directors. Among the many trends and patterns you will find in the movies, there is one that cannot be denied: some directors just don’t suck. Ever. They just don’t have it in them to make a bad movie. Steven Spielberg is without a doubt one of those directors that just doesn’t suck. Look at all the movies of his career and you will see a list of some of the best movies in all of American cinema. Spielberg had a particularly busy year in 2002, releasing one of the summer’s biggest blockbusters, Minority Report (which we will discuss farther down the list) and this film which dominated the holiday box office and for good reason. Catch Me If You Can is one of the most incredibly entertaining stories ever put on film. It follows the story of real-life master con-artist Frank Abagnale who made millions by cashing fraudulent checks at banks, impersonated everything from an airline pilot to a doctor, and most amazing of all avoided the FBI for years. Leonardo DiCaprio, as part of his 2002 comeback tour, plays Abagnale as a young man who acquires a remarkable way of earning people’s trust and found countless ways of exploiting that trust to get what he needed. Abagnale never looks like a bad guy to us, since his crimes usually have no victims and he is such a young, charismatic personality and thus makes a sort of flawed hero who we root for even though we know he deserves to get caught. Frank lives out the dreams of so many teenage boys and becomes a real life James Bond, traipsing around the country essentially doing whatever he pleases, the more exciting the better. Probably the best performance in this film comes from Christopher Walken, who plays Frank’s father, a man who, like Frank, was always able to earn people’s trust but never quite took things to the extent that Frank did. Walken’s scenes are always the most emotionally interesting of the entire movie and we see him rooting for Frank, living almost vicariously through his son’s exploits. Tom Hanks, who continues to solidify himself as one of cinema’s legendary figures, also has a fantastic performance as Carl Hanratty, the nerdy and diligent FBI agent assigned to catching Frank. Hanratty and Frank develop an subtly unique relationship unlike that of any other two characters I’ve ever seen in the movies. They have a profound respect for each other as hunter and prey, but is the times that Frank’s vulnerability shines through that we truly understand the relationship. Frank is boy enjoying his life and hoping above all else that his consequences will never catch up to him. Hanratty, although he feels compassion for the young Frank and doesn’t hold any animosity toward him, looks at his job as just that: a job. He must do what he’s paid to do and if that means crushing a young man’s dreams then so be it. Among many other attributes, the film also does a great job of detailing the early 1960’s in a way that really no other film has. Spielberg takes the setting of the film with great importance, making sure that not only the costumes and sets fit, but also the dialogue and even the attitudes of all the characters. This is a story that could not take place in any other time period but the ‘60s and Spielberg is imminently aware of this at all times. Ultimately, this is a film that would have been good under any director because of its inherently entertaining nature, but under Spielberg it is great. Spielberg handles every aspect with such detail and such enthusiasm that he brings out the best in his material and in his actors, bringing the film to a whole different level than any other director could. Catch Me If You Can reassures me that Spielberg is truly a gift to the cinema and it is certainly one of the best films of 2002.
Original Review