Review: Catch Me If You Can

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Frank Abagnale Jr., who lived a remarkable life as a con man from ages 16-21. During this time he posed as a pilot, a doctor, and even a lawyer, getting away with millions through charm and phony cheques. In pursuit of Frank for all these years is humourless FBI man Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), whilst Christopher Walken plays Frank’s ne’er do well father, who loves his son and will try to protect him, no matter what he does, perhaps because he sees his own dealings with the IRS may have in some way influenced his son’s life of trickery and deceit. Amy Adams turns up as a naïve nurse who falls for Frank (posing as a doctor), with Martin Sheen as her loving father who becomes fond of Frank. We know this can’t last, though, as the spectre of Hanratty is never too far away.

 

He doesn’t always hit the bullseye, but I regard Steven Spielberg (“Jaws”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “Minority Report”, “War of the Worlds”) as one of the best and most important filmmakers of the last 40 years. So it seems bizarre that he and screenwriter Jeff Nathanson (the unfairly maligned “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, the mediocre “Tower Heist”) fail to adopt the right tone to the real-life story of Frank Abagnale Jr. in this 2005 film. I like the film well enough, but it’s not everything that it could be, because the filmmakers don’t seem to realise what a sad and tragic film this is, in many ways. They seem to think it’s a Cary Grant caper or something. Spielberg goes for light and breezy, which just doesn’t feel right for the most part, and you wish he’d do more with the father-son relationships here. Given Spielberg’s fondness for dealing with fractured families in his films (“ET: The Extra Terrestrial” for instance), it comes as quite a surprise, really. It’s the most Spielbergian aspect to an otherwise not terribly Spielbergian film. This might be because Spielberg was originally only meant to produce the film, and was late to the director’s chair. I wouldn’t call him a director-for-hire here, exactly, but it’s not one of his more substantial directorial jobs (I’d argue that both “Minority Report” and “War of the Worlds” are much better Spielberg films from around this period in his career).

 

It’s undoubtedly an entertaining story (a remarkably true one) and Leonardo DiCaprio is so right as Abagnale here, you wonder how he could be so wrong as Jay Gatsby, given the characters are both poseurs. He’s perfect as the cocky charmer and fraud with a lot of unresolved emotional issues underneath. Christopher Walken is also excellent as his loving but hopeless father who you wish the filmmakers found more time for. Some of the details of Abagnale’s cons are fun- it’s certainly an entertaining film. You almost want this cocky little bastard to get away with it, right or wrong. Part of the reason for that is because the man pursuing him is a humourless, dour FBI man played with an extremely uncharacteristic lack of charm or personality by Tom Hanks. Although he never quite makes his (New England? Bah-stan?) accent convincing, Hanks is fine, it’s just that playing the most boring man on the face of the Earth isn’t exactly to the actor’s great advantage (I would’ve cast Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, or William H. Macy). It’s actually rather annoying that Spielberg and Nathanson make Hanks’ character so humourless and unlikeable, because his is the one character taking any of this as seriously as it should be (Well, maybe a little too seriously). That’s unfair. He’s the good guy here, quite clearly. Things finally get interesting between the two characters when their dynamic changes somewhat, but by then the film is almost over! One bright spark in the film is the absolutely adorable Amy Adams, who steals her every scene. Boy is she cute as a button in this.

 

However, there’s two scenes here that show just how much better and more substantial this film could’ve been if Spielberg wanted it to be. The first is a happy family moment with DiCaprio, Adams, and her family that shows just what DiCaprio yearns for. The second is a scene with DiCaprio and Walken where he’s seemingly begging his parents to get back together. This kid is searching for something he lost all too young: His happy parental unit. It’s also in this second scene that we realise that DiCaprio’s Abagnale can’t stop lying. Mind you, alarm bells should’ve gone off that this kid is full of it when he suddenly changes from being a pilot to being a doctor. So there’s some good dramatic stuff in here, you just have to forage through the light and breezy con man caper stuff. Don’t worry, though, because you’ll have fun with all that stuff anyway. It’s a good film, it really is. It’s just not a great one.

 

I found the cinematography by Janusz Kaminski (“Schindler’s List”, “Saving Private Ryan”, “War Horse”) a little distracting, as streams of light shine through windows, giving a hazy vibe that made me want to take my glasses off and rub my eyes. However, the production design and costuming are first-rate. I also loved the Saul Bass-esque title design, and the John Williams (“Jaws”, “Star Wars”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”) music score gave off a similarly 60s vibe, somewhat Bernard Herrmann-ish, actually (think “To Catch a Thief”), or maybe Henry Mancini (“The Pink Panther”).

 

It’s a solid and interesting film in spite of the rather superficial and fluffy treatment the filmmakers have taken to the story as written in the book by Abagnale Jr. and Stan Redding. There’s a lot to like here, I just think it could’ve been even better if Spielberg treated the rather dark subject matter more appropriately. As is, it feels oddly light and somewhat insubstantial for a film that is ultimately about a very lonely young man from a broken home made by a director whose parents also divorced at a young age.

 

Rating: B-