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#511 - Catch Me If You Can
Steven Spielberg, 2002
Based on the true story of Frank Abagnale Jr., a teenage runaway who becomes an incredibly talented con artist whose actions result in him being constantly pursued by the FBI.
As this thread will attest, I haven't really cared too much about Steven Spielberg's post-2000 output. The films I've seen have ranged from the passably tolerable to the aggressively mediocre (with the possible exception of Minority Report, though I'll see how well that holds up on a re-watch). Even so, I proceeded to re-watch Catch Me If You Can to see if my relatively lukewarm first impression after watching it over a decade ago had changed much at all. Granted, It's got a decent enough high concept based on a characteristically Spielbergian story of a larger-than-life character - namely, Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio), who starts off as an ordinary high school student in the early 1960s, albeit one who receives tutelage in small-time cons from his respectable businessman father (Christopher Walken). When his parents divorce, he decides to run away and eventually starts to devise his own methods of conning people, mainly through combinations of forging bank checks and adopting various cover identities that include pretending to be an airline pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer. Eventually he starts to draw the attention of the FBI (personified by Tom Hanks as a strait-laced investigator who takes the case incredibly seriously) and so begins a merry chase across America and eventually across international boundaries between the two extremely different yet fundamentally similar characters.
Catch Me If You Can does have some strengths. DiCaprio is somewhat unremarkable with his rather familiar method of playing a charmer with a sad side. He is still decent enough to carry the film and has some good interplay with Hanks, who makes for a goofy yet sufficiently threatening antagonist. Walken is also pretty solid in an Oscar-nominated turn as a character with some wily charm and pronounced vulnerability. Other good performers show up as well (such as Amy Adams as Frank's first truly serious girlfriend and Martin Sheen as her affable father). However, these performances are all in service to a film that is drawn out a bit too long and a bit too dependent on the comedic nature of the conflict involving DiCaprio staying one step ahead of Hanks. Some credit has to go to the little flourishes, such as John Williams' score that downplays his typically sentimental approach in favour of a perpetually nervous type of music that suits the film's cat-and-mouse narrative (and combines with the elaborate opening credits sequence to set a tone that the rest of the film can't quite seem to match). I also question the effectiveness of having several scenes throughout the film that detail Hanks' mission to extradite an imprisoned DiCaprio from a French prison; the foregone conclusion and most of the scenes referencing it add very little to the film (not even the fantasy sequence that opens the film and takes place on a made-up game show). As a result, Catch Me If You Can is a very middle-of-the-road film that has some okay performances and the odd clever moment but is generally stretched a bit too thin and doesn't bring all that much to the table.
Steven Spielberg, 2002
Based on the true story of Frank Abagnale Jr., a teenage runaway who becomes an incredibly talented con artist whose actions result in him being constantly pursued by the FBI.
As this thread will attest, I haven't really cared too much about Steven Spielberg's post-2000 output. The films I've seen have ranged from the passably tolerable to the aggressively mediocre (with the possible exception of Minority Report, though I'll see how well that holds up on a re-watch). Even so, I proceeded to re-watch Catch Me If You Can to see if my relatively lukewarm first impression after watching it over a decade ago had changed much at all. Granted, It's got a decent enough high concept based on a characteristically Spielbergian story of a larger-than-life character - namely, Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio), who starts off as an ordinary high school student in the early 1960s, albeit one who receives tutelage in small-time cons from his respectable businessman father (Christopher Walken). When his parents divorce, he decides to run away and eventually starts to devise his own methods of conning people, mainly through combinations of forging bank checks and adopting various cover identities that include pretending to be an airline pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer. Eventually he starts to draw the attention of the FBI (personified by Tom Hanks as a strait-laced investigator who takes the case incredibly seriously) and so begins a merry chase across America and eventually across international boundaries between the two extremely different yet fundamentally similar characters.
Catch Me If You Can does have some strengths. DiCaprio is somewhat unremarkable with his rather familiar method of playing a charmer with a sad side. He is still decent enough to carry the film and has some good interplay with Hanks, who makes for a goofy yet sufficiently threatening antagonist. Walken is also pretty solid in an Oscar-nominated turn as a character with some wily charm and pronounced vulnerability. Other good performers show up as well (such as Amy Adams as Frank's first truly serious girlfriend and Martin Sheen as her affable father). However, these performances are all in service to a film that is drawn out a bit too long and a bit too dependent on the comedic nature of the conflict involving DiCaprio staying one step ahead of Hanks. Some credit has to go to the little flourishes, such as John Williams' score that downplays his typically sentimental approach in favour of a perpetually nervous type of music that suits the film's cat-and-mouse narrative (and combines with the elaborate opening credits sequence to set a tone that the rest of the film can't quite seem to match). I also question the effectiveness of having several scenes throughout the film that detail Hanks' mission to extradite an imprisoned DiCaprio from a French prison; the foregone conclusion and most of the scenes referencing it add very little to the film (not even the fantasy sequence that opens the film and takes place on a made-up game show). As a result, Catch Me If You Can is a very middle-of-the-road film that has some okay performances and the odd clever moment but is generally stretched a bit too thin and doesn't bring all that much to the table.