2002 / 141 Minutes / PG-13
Reviewed by Dale Nauertz

When was the last time you could use both the words “fun” and “fascinating” to describe a film you saw? When was the last time that you had a ripping time watching a film and yet was amazed and emotionally stimulated by its psychological depth and moved by its plot? Such things are the reasons that “Catch Me If You Can” is Spielberg’s best film of the past decade. It’s brimming with fun and it’s insanely cool and clever, and yet it has a heart and a lot on its mind as well.

“Catch Me If You Can” is the story of Frank Abagnale Jr., a man who had scammed over four million dollars in phony checks by the time he was nineteen years old. He had also successfully impersonated an airlines pilot, a doctor, a secret service agent, a wealthy playboy and a lawyer and had charmed his way into even more money and respect. Frank’s life is a fascinating tale, that much more amazing because aspects of it are based in truth. It is also the story of the man who made it his mission to track Frank down: humorless FBI agent Carl Handratty (Tom Hanks).

“Catch Me If You Can” is essentially a two-man show, with each man giving a stupendous performance. Both men are also polar opposites. Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio, worthy of a nomination for Best Actor but, not surprisingly, snubbed of one) is a born charmer, a man with enough self-confidence and pure gusto to get anything he needs out of life with simply the right set of words and a smile. Handratty, on the other hand, is a humorless individual devoid of much overt charm but with a single-minded dedication toward his job. He doesn’t joke, he rarely smiles, but he has a strange respect for Abagnale, not that it discounts his ambition to catch the man and make him take his medicine. The difference between these men is humorously illustrated in a scene where we cut from Frank seducing a young woman to Carl watching his laundry spin in a Laundromat. What is the main thing that draws these men to one another? What makes them kindred spirits despite the fact that the law is against them? Both of these men are unable to keep the people they love happy or even around them. Both of them, because of the lots they have chosen in life, are doomed to be alone, no matter how hard they attempt to change this.

It’s subtext like this which gives “Catch Me If You Can” it’s resonance. Sure, it’s a hell of a lot of fun watching Frank boldly bluff his way all over the world and into any profession that momentarily gathers his attention. It’s a tremendous amount of fun. I particularly loved the scene where Frank actually cons a high-class prostitute (the insanely gorgeous Jennifer Garner) into paying him for a night of sex. And the way he eludes the authorities at a certain airport is ingenious in its daring simplicity and its shrewdness. If the film had nothing more resonant than this air of gleeful duplicity, it would still be highly recommended, and worthy of “A” status. “Ocean’s Eleven” was a gleefully constructed tale of larceny and fun on much the same level. What makes the film stick in the consciousness long after the initial viewing, however, are the scenes of palpable loneliness and heartache. For all his gusto and all his confidence, Frank is a sad man who has never quite gotten over the way his parents’ perfect marriage disintegrated before his very eyes. And, for all his no-nonsense mannerisms and lack of apparent personality, Carl seems to have thrown himself into his work simply because it’s the only thing he has not yet screwed up. The running situation that both men are alone on Christmas with no one to talk to but each other speaks volumes for their characters. Hanks and DiCaprio do some fine work here. One might be able to steal the whole show if the other one weren’t so damn good. The rest of the cast does an admirable job as well. Christopher Walken snagged a much-deserved Oscar nomination as Frank Abagnale Sr. He informs the role with a dog-eared sadness and determination that strikes rings true and hits deep in the heart. Martin Sheen and Jennifer Garner also make fine use of their limited roles, and Amy Adams is delightful as the woman who finally steals Frank’s scamming heart.

But a load of kudos is also due to Steven Spielberg and the fine team he has assembled. After the fine job they did crafting the flawed but engaging “Minority Report”, they have trounced that fine film with their excellent work here. They have done an especially great job in capturing the piece’s period details. They seem to have captured an era in this film. They have taken the glamorous, glossily retro-futuristic sensibilities of the mid-Sixties and distilled their essence directly onto the screen. The production design is nearly flawless. There is an even-handed skill and a subtlety to this work that may shock most fans of Spielberg’s work. Notice the way he invests even a stain on a carpet with subtext and deeper meaning. This is the work of a true genius. What’s more, it’s also a completely new direction for Steve, a door he hasn’t chosen to take us through before.

I certainly hope he chooses to use this door again, and very soon. It has the elegance and poignancy that he demonstrated in “A.I.”, only on a more intimate level. “Catch Me If You Can” isn’t just the most fun I’ve had in a theater since “The Transporter”, it’s also the best film of the year. Bar none.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 25th, 2002 at 1:14 pm and is filed under Dale's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.