Catch Me If You Can
Review by Jason Donner
Another day, another movie based on a true story... or, in this case,
inspired by a true story which means, of course... the only
thing in the movie that is true is that something vaguely like
it happened once.
This time,
eternal teenager Leonardo DiCaprio plays legendary con man, Frank
Abagnale Jr. in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can.
This movie is a little unusual for Spielberg, but if we wants to go
against the grain every now and then, I say more power to him.
The story is about Abagnale who impersonated an airline pilot, a
pediatrician, a lawyer, and managed to scam over 4 million dollars
from banks before he was seventeen years old. Yep, it's a movie about
check fraud.
Before you start yawning, let me continue.
Catch Me If You Can is about check fraud, but it's a fun
movie about check fraud. A contradiction and a paradox? Yes, perhaps
it is... but when the perpetrator is slick and always one step ahead
of the perusing lawman played by Tom Hanks, it's got to be fun.
In fact, all three of the primary players obviously have a great time
making this movie and chewing the scenery. Tom Hanks adopts an
over-the-top Midwestern accent while playing a guy who makes Ben Stein
look like a party animal. Christopher Walken does a great turn as a
father teetering on the brink of insanity while fighting the IRS, and
Leonardo DiCaprio has apparently gotten over that annoying "pretty
boy" phase he went through after Titanic and has started doing
serious acting again. Any guy who can play someone who steals and lies
and still makes him likeable to the audience deserves kudos from me.
On the whole, it's fun, slick, stylish, clever, and doesn't even feel
like a two hour movie. In the end, it even says something worthwhile
without looking cheap or forced.
It's another great movie in Spielberg's portfolio that will remind a
lot of people why we love this guy in the first place even when
pretentious basement critics laughably try to convince the world that
his films are crap.