Only a master thief can catch a lesser thief, according to Catch Me If You Can, directed by Stephen Spielberg. When the film begins, Frank Abagnale, Sr. (played by Christopher Willem), is accepting an award from the New Rochelle Kiwanis Club, an award based on con games with the townspeople. IRS is after him for some reason, so he pulls up stakes in the Westchester suburb to live in a Manhattan apartment with his wife Paula (played by Nathalie Baye) and son Frank, Jr. (played by Leonardo diCaprio). Sixteen-year-old Frank begins his career as a con man by fooling a high school by pretending to be a substitute teacher for a French class for a week, a ruse that wins plaudits from his father, who also involves him in a few capers of his own. Soon thereafter, his parents split. Believing himself to be homeless, Frank, Jr., starts his career as a con man by calling Pan American Airlines on the pretext of doing an interview for his school paper. Answers to his questions provide enough information so that he can fly free around the country, posing as a Pan Am pilot who goes aboard planes of other airline companies; the trick is that airline pilots of every airline fly free as a courtesy in the cockpits of other airlines so that they can reach destinations away from their regular flight destinations. Since his father ran a stationery store, Frank was familiar with grades of paper and ink, so he is able to forge Pan Am payroll checks and cash them around the country while wearing his Pan Am uniform, which he obtains by another ruse. In time, he pretends to be a Harvard-educated physician, and he even passes the Louisiana Bar exam to become a lawyer. Among the rewards are ample sexual opportunities. However, FBI Special Agent Carl Hanratty (played by Tom Hanks) is assigned the case as the amount of check fraud exceeds $1 million; he has two assistants. His relentless pursuit eventually catches Frank, who is sentenced to thirteen years in solitary confinement in a maximum-security federal prison in Atlanta. However, other bank fraud cases emerge after Frank is locked up, and Hanratty and his two assistants (who appear to be an FBI version of The Three Stooges) are outclassed by bank fraud geniuses. The film ends with panache, as hinted in the first sentence of this review, and titles indicate where Frank is now. The screenplay is based on an autobiography by Frank Abagnale, Jr. MH

I want to comment on this film

Catch Me If You Can: The Amazing True Story of the Most Extraordinary Liar in the History of Fun and Profit
by Stan Redding, Frank W. Abagnale