Catch Me If You Can

What's the Plot?

Frank W Abagnale (Leonardo DeCaprio), worked as a doctor, a lawyer, and a co-pilot in the early 1960s - all before his 21st birthday! Upset after parents' divorce (Christopher Walken and Nathalie Baye), Frank ran off, his expertise as a forger and master of disguise put him on the FBI's most wanted list. His skill at cheque fraud netted him millions of dollars and set upon his trail one FBI agent named Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks). Having let him slip through his fingers once already, Hanratty is determined to bring in Frank to see justice served and to repair his broken reputation. However, he has his job cut out for him as Frank always seems to be one step ahead in the cat-and-mouse game that both intend not to loose.

Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks)

The Review

Back in 1993, Spielberg followed Jurassic Park with Schindler's List. Now 10 years later, he has again created two very different movies in every aspect possible. Minority Report was a predominately deep movie with serious issues and a dark tone, but Catch Me If You Can sees Spielberg returning to his more "light-hearted, mainstream" fare that people remember him for.

Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) with a the aspiring flight attendants

He still delivers characters that you care and root for, and scenes of excitement and tension, but there's a little more on offer that we're used to. From the title sequence that comes across as an animated cross between Saul Bass and the Pink Panther, whilst an unexpected jazz music score accompanies it, there's a slightly cool feel to this cat and mouse capper.

For a start, there's no clear winner for you to root for! Both the hunter (Hank's obsessed FBI agent) and the hunted (DiCaprio's fresh-faced criminal), are worthy of your sympathy and support.

Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) examines cheque

This is reinforced by two major factors - the unspoken bond that takes place between the two leads and a liberal sprinkling of humour mixed with cool that runs throughout the film's running time. When the idolising Frank - superbly played by DeCaprio, whose good looks help you belive that he could get anything - loses his father (the captivating Walken, who exudes cool in every scene), his only father-figure becomes the man who wants him behind bars...Hanks!

The pair's phone conversations on various Christmas Days are touching as each begins to rely on the other. However, the old Spielberg criticism - sentimentality - is never overplayed. Humour is always pushed to the fore. From Frank's first attempt at impersonation of a substitute teacher who arranges field trips and parent's evenings whilst still a student, through to his obtaining a pilot's uniform, smiles, smirks and belly laughs are never far away.

Girls reaction to Frank's charms, his watching various TV programs to find out how to act (hospital soaps to become a doctor, Ironside to become a lawyer), all these and countless other things add up to one of the most charming and charismatic movies of recent memory. Not unlike the central character really! Oscar nomination please!