Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Review of Catch Me If You Can (2002), directed by Steven Spielberg
My first experience with Catch Me If You Can is the Broadway show, which starred one of my all-time favorite Broadway people: Aaron Tveit. While this film has Leonardo DiCaprio in the same role, he could never match to my original favorite. But he does a pretty damn good job as Frank, that’s for sure.
I will also say I am impressed with DiCaprio’s baby face, since he’s looked exactly the same as his feature in Gilbert Grape, where he played a sixteen year old. And now, a decade later, he’s playing a nineteen-year-old.
Crime films always hold a specific sort of appeal, especially when they’ve got this awesome coloring and setting that I absolutely go mad for. As we see Frank go through the brownstones of New York City with that gritty, beige coloring at the beginning, I was in love with the coloring alone.
Content
The film follows the life of Frank Abagnale Jr., a real-life con-man who, at nineteen years old, claims to have impersonated a pilot, a federal prosecutor, and a doctor. It’s insane to watch this on the screen, watching in unfold in a stimulated reality, because it becomes so much more real. He didn’t need that much to pull these cons off; they were completely based on his own assured confidence that he could do this without getting caught.
Acting in this movie is superb. DiCaprio is assured about his role, playing the confident, smooth role with ease. My eye was caught by Christopher Walken playing his father, as well as the FBI agent played by Tom Hanks. Those two made the trinity of acting for me. The pacing was good, the dialogue managed to be compelling and I didn’t find the movie to lag at any point.
Although, even if this is set in the 1960s-ish, I watch this with a feminist angle and cringe. It’s a boy’s game, the FBI, while all of the women in the film are intended just to be looked at.
The air stewardess and Miami bank girl act dumb, while as a teller denies Abagnale from cashing the check, we see how the woman needs to be rescued by the boss-man. Even Frank’s mother is pitted as somewhat dumb, cheating on his father and being the source of a problem.
And then comes the romance. Amy Adams plays Brenda, a naïve girl that Abagnale falls in love with, and guess what? She leads to his downfall.
And that’s what these women are: sources of the problem, letting Frank commit all of these crimes. Though I was entertained by the date where the girl just slowly throws playing cards at Frank as she walks in a circle and he names his price. Then the scenes cuts just to the FBI agent doing his laundry at the same time. Perfect. Genius. Loved it.
Overall Thoughts
The best part about this movie? The original Abagnale, whose memoir this movie is based upon, lied about all of this. There is no evidence at all that he did what this movie is about.
I did enjoy the movie though, especially as DiCaprio screams about his Italian knit sweater being ruined by a drunk. It’s an entertaining film, once you ignore how women are depicted, and it’s got some great shots and coloring on it. We see how broken homes and childhoods ruin a person, and we learn to live with a criminal and actually like him.
