CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
Reviewed by Sam Hatch
There was a time in the eighties and nineties when Steven Spielberg felt like a casualty of sentimentality, leaving many of us to fear the classics lensed during his heyday would never again find worthy counterparts. Jurassic Park was fun, yet the book read like the work of James Cameron and the end product wasn't able to match that feel. The Lost World is better off forgotten. He didn't seem to get squeamish over historical nightmares (Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan), but when it came to his own work he would make bizarre revisions, as evidenced by the removal of guns in E.T. Yet all of a sudden, senor Spielberg grew a pair of cajones again. Minority Report was lurking on the edge of cynicism, and while its denouement wasn't as inhuman as the rest of the package, it was amazing to see him taking risks again.
Catch Me If You Can is not a cynical science fiction epic, but is still part and parcel of Spielberg's triumphant return to form. Based on the autobiography by Frank Abagnale, Jr., it spins a yarn around the travels and conquests of a young man who seeks solace from his parents' divorce by bouncing checks and posing as an airline pilot. It's hard not to get swept up in Frank's tale, and Leonardo Dicaprio does an ample job at balancing Frank's ebullient charm with the scared and insecure young boy that is only glimpsed and understood by his antagonist.
Tom Hanks' Carl Hanratty is a Fed officer who specializes in prosecuting ‘paper hangers' like Frank. He does his best to trail the lad across the states in what eventually blossoms into an obsession with capturing the wily youth. In the meantime Frank switches from his pilot identity to that of a doctor (and even to an assistant district attorney) with aplomb, and is no stranger to the ladies. In one hilarious scene, he manages to convince Jennifer Garner's high-class hooker to take a bogus check and give him back change.
Christopher Walken lends gravitas to the role of Frank Sr., injecting moments of reality to the proceedings as he flits in and out of his son's life. A failed con man himself, he can't help but feel proud of his son's successes (brilliantly brought to life in a scene where Frank Jr. is caught imitating a substitute teacher at school – his father is clearly beaming with pride over the ruse) but understands the dark road that all of this may ultimately lead to. Hanks and DiCaprio have the kind of nemesis/friendship essayed by Deniro and Pacino in Heat, and Spielberg wisely eschews delving into too many saccharine buddy-buddy moments. Perhaps a bit overlong, the gleeful buzz it creates in the first two acts is damned hard to resist. But in the end this check still doesn't bounce. Extra kudos to the Hitchcockian opening credits, accompanied by some of the most interesting work John Williams has done in eons.