Catch Me If You Can

December 10, 2004

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 140 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Catch Me If You Can is a somewhat lackluster film “inspired by true events” and directed by Steven Spielberg. The movie’s inspiration comes from the autobiography of Frank W. Abagnale Jr. (played by DiCaprio), and regales us with the tale of a young man who cashed millions of dollars in phony checks and successfully posed as an airline pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer - all before the age of 19. Hanks plays the role of Carl Hanratty, the FBI agent obsessed with bringing Abagnale to justice. Christopher Walken plays Frank Jr’s father, Frank Abagnale Sr.

Catch Me If You Can

Now we could go into more depth with the plot explanation for you, but that would ruin the only real reason to watch the film. It would be too easy to give away the only meat in this picture with a few sentences of exposition, so we won’t do that to you. There are some interesting little moments, and Abagnale pulls off a couple of cons that will make you smile. Leo gives a convincing depiction of a young man who is driven to fix the things that went wrong in his father’s life, but is only barely passable as a con man. He doesn’t convey the confidence one would expect from a person who can so effortlessly carry off the cons portrayed in the film. We get the feeling he gets away with it because the script says so, not because he was really that good. If you saw Matt Damon and the calm, poised coolness with which he carried himself in The Bourne Identity, then you will likely also be thinking that he would have been a better choice for this role.

There is a hint of a Captain Ahab - Moby Dick theme underlying Hanratty’s obsession with bringing down Frank, but it is not developed enough to be interesting. We don’t see Hanratty’s life falling apart as he sacrifices all to bring in his whale. Blah. Since we weren’t allowed to take Hanratty too seriously, you’d think perhaps he was there for comic relief. Indeed, previews and early reports touted Hank’s performance as “comedically brilliant”. However, that was not the case either. Hanratty simply wasn’t that intriguing a character, and definitely not that funny - but almost. It was as if Hanks would take the character to the edge of funny and then be told to back it off a bit, “This isn’t that kind of comedy, Tom”. Too bad. For Tom Hanks, this is a bland and forgettable role.

Bright spots were arguably those few scenes graced by the king of slick, Christopher Walken. This guy could read his grocery list and sound cool. He could read Dr. Seuss and command attention, if only because you half thought that if you looked away he’d beat you about the head with some green eggs and ham. He didn’t have a huge role, but we felt his scenes made the film worth watching. Mr. Walken raises the picture’s score from a mediocre 2 stars up to a halfhearted 3 stars.

If you’ve read any other reviews for this film, then chances are you’ve already had the ending of the film blown for you. It’s like reading a review for Perfect Storm and the reviewer tells you “It’s based on the true story about that fishing boat in the really big storm off of Newfoundland where everyone died.” Uh, thanks for that. Be sure to write that reviewer an e-mail thanking them. If the ending hasn’t been blown for you and you still plan on catching this movie, then don’t read anything or talk to anyone about it. The last fifteen minutes are actually kind of cool and are really the only payoff from the entire 2 hour buildup.

Overall, for a Spielberg-Hanks project we expected much more than this. We felt that if they decided to go with the “Inspired by a true story” route (which tells us there was a good deal of Hollywood-style embellishment) then they might as well have cranked everything up a notch or two to make it a more exciting ride. As it stands, the film is a somewhat bland tale highlighted with a few sparkly scenes, a couple of smiles, and a moderately satisfying payoff. Plus Christopher Walken kicks ass.

Posted by Rob X | Filed Under 3 Stars, Christopher Walken, Drama, Leonardo DiCaprio, PG-13, Theatrical, Tom Hanks