Catch Me if You Can

Released 2002
Stars Leonardo DeCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Nathalie Baye, Amy Adams, Martin Sheen
Directed by Steven Spielberg

Catch Me if You Can details the somewhat fictionalized tale of Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio), who, between the ages of 16 and 21, was the world's most successful con artist. Not only did he successfully pose as an airplane pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer, but he cashed more than $2.5 million worth of fraudulent checks. Now, nearly four decades after being brought down, Abagnale is one of the foremost authorities on corporate security.

Soon after beginning his life of crime, Frank finds himself being pursued by FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks). For years, the two engage in a cat-and-mouse game, with Carl always a few steps behind Frank. But, despite his numerous failures in just missing Frank, Carl never gives up. Meanwhile, Frank frequently re-invents himself, sometimes because he needs a new cover to escape capture and sometimes out of sheer boredom. But, despite his wealth and success, he is a lonely person. His deepest connection is with his father, Frank Sr. (Christopher Walken, in a low-key and moving portrayal), whom he deeply respects. He harbors feelings of resentment towards his self-absorbed mother, Paula (Nathalie Baye), who dumped his father for a more successful man (James Brolin). His loneliness makes him vulnerable to the sweet naïveté of Brenda Strong (Amy Adams), a nurse he meets in an Atlanta hospital where he is posing as a doctor. He genuinely falls in love with her, but, when Hanratty closes in, he is forced to run… again.

Summary by James Berardinelli

I find it difficult to root for a criminal, but this movie doesn't really ask us to do that. It establishes his capture and incarceration very early and we flash back to his pre-criminal teens and his extraordinary crime spree. When I first heard the premise for this story, I thought it was ludicrous, but then I heard it was based on a true story. It's terribly difficult to imagine how a teenager could pull this off, but he did. In fact, he did even more in real life (like teach college for a semester) than he does in the movie. The amazing thing about his story is not that he did these things--it's that he did them when he was so young. He must really have looked older than his age, because you wouldn't think a teenager could actually become an administrative doctor in charge of an ER, a lawyer, a college professor, and pass himself off as a pilot. He was obviously bright if he was able to pass the bar exam on his first try, and his intelligence allowed him to quickly grasp procedures and jargon, which was critical to his cons, but it was his personality that carried him through this. 

One reason this movie works so well is because it intercuts between his capture and his crime spree, so it doesn't ask us to root for him. We merely watch in awe as he pulls off his cons, but we know how the story ends. The thing that's even more amazing than Frank's crime spree is his life after prison. He became a security consultant who made (and continues to make) millions from corporations to prevent criminals like himself--I'm sure many of those corporations are companies he defrauded in the first place. --Bill Alward, July 20, 2003