Frank Abagnale, Jr., is a con man. His biggest con may have been convincing a lot of people that he was a bigger and better con man than he ever was in real life. In 1980 he published a book called Catch Me If You Can, which detailed his supposed exploits. He cashed millions of dollars in fake checks and logged thousands of miles as a Pan Am pilot by deadheading – posing as a pilot who needs to get to a certain destination in order to begin his flying duties and who then takes a free flight to that location. He posed as a physician and a lawyer and secured jobs as both.
Buy Catch Me If You CanThe trouble is, almost all of his story was completely made up. By him. He now makes a living as a security consultant and gives talks about his exploits, all of which was made possible by people believing his lies. There have been numerous books and articles written debunking the vast majority of the things he claimed he did.
Steven Spielberg directed a movie about that book, also called Catch Me If You Can, in 2002, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Christopher Walken, and Tom Hanks. It presents the events as “Inspired by a True Story.” As far as I can tell, the production team believed Abagnale’s story. But the thing is, it really doesn’t matter at all. Whether or not Spielberg believed he was telling a true story or that Abagnale made every last word out of whole cloth, this is a great movie, and at the end of the day that’s all that matters.
There is an early scene that sums up the tone of the film and its themes. FBI Agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) has come to a French prison to extradite Frank Abagnale (Leonardo DiCaprio). This is Christmas 1969, after years of Frank living the high life and Carl chasing him. The prison conditions are horrid. It is cold, and the rain leaks right into the cell. Frank is emaciated. His hair is long and straggly; his beard overgrown and unkempt. He coughs with abandon. Carl isn’t buying it. He knows Frank too well. He’s been chasing him for too long to be tricked again. He shakes his head and reads to him the official extraction papers. But when Frank collapses, Carl calls the guards in and demands he be taken to a doctor.
At the infirmary, Carl is told by the French guards that the doctor is not on duty today. Carl shows true concern over Frank’s well-being and quotes rules and regulations to the guards. Meanwhile, Frank sneaks out the door and makes a run for it. They are still in prison, so there is nowhere for him to go, but he tries anyway. He lifts his hands triumphantly as he runs past a group of cheering inmates and then collapses again, for he truly is ill.
It is a great scene (one of many). We learn that Carl is a stern man who follows the rules but is also caring and kind. Frank, even when deathly sick, will still try to run, to con his way out of trouble. It is a fun and funny scene, yet there is an underbelly of darkness there. The whole film is like that.
The opening credits make it feel like a throwback spy movie. John Williams’s incredible score plays over a delightful animated sequence with a DiCaprio-looking character dressed as a pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer, successfully escaping the clutches of an FBI man. Spielberg pitches most of the film with a light touch. It is incredibly fun watching Frank become these different people. Leonardo DiCaprio is at his most charming. He plays Frank as a man who realized early on that he could get away with anything as long as he smiles and pretends he knows what he’s doing.
In one scene, we see Frank going to a new school as a student. He’s dressed in his old school uniform with a jacket and tie on. Some boys make fun of him. But the moment he realizes his French class is supposed to have a substitute teacher and she’s not yet there, he writes his name on the chalkboard, tells everybody to sit down, and asks what chapter they are on. He’s not playing long cons; he’s just making it up as he goes along, and having so much fun doing it. We’re having a blast watching him.
Yet it isn’t all fun and games; there is a darkness there, an inherent sadness to the character. For all the lovers he takes, the money he steals, and the cons he plays, Frank is a very lonely man. We are given some backstory. His father (a wonderful Christopher Walken) seems to have been a bit of a con man himself. He always seems to be in trouble with the IRS. At one point, he charms a store clerk into letting Frank borrow a black suit and then lets him drive him to the bank as if Frank is his chauffeur. He makes sure the bank manager sees this, then comes in and tries to get a loan. His mother is French. She met Frank’s father during the war. One day, Frank catches her having an affair with another man, and she does her best to pretend it was nothing. His parents will get a divorce, but Frank will never stop believing his father can win her back.
Tom Hanks is perfect as Carl Hanratty. He looks like a 1960s FBI man who happily spends his day chasing bank frauders. Everyone else on his team wishes they were somewhere else, doing something more exciting. But Carl loves working with numbers, learning the details of how the financial systems work, and how Frank has learned to cheat them.
The rest of the cast is like a who’s who of before-they-were-famous stars. Amy Adams shows up as a nurse who falls in love with Frank when he’s playing doctor (Martin Sheen plays her father). Ellen Pompeo and Elizabeth Banks are stewardesses he flirts with when he’s pretending to be a pilot. And Jennifer Garner has a memorable role as a woman who tells Frank she’ll sleep with him for a thousand dollars. When she sees he’s got a (fake) check for $1,300, she readily agrees to give him $300 cash if he’ll give it to her (meaning she’s actually paid him $300 for the deed).
The film is so light on its feet, and so pleasurable to watch, it’s easy to consider this second-tier Spielberg. Roger Ebert said it was “not a major Spielberg” effort, but I disagree. This is not a big, important film like Schindler’s List, but Spielberg’s direction is spectacular. He knows exactly when to make it crowd-pleasing and when to turn things down a notch. When to give the story some gravitas, when to allow us to see inside the darkness within Frank’s character. It feels effortless, but there was undoubtedly a huge amount of preparation and forethought. That’s what makes Spielberg a master. It is a great film. One that gets better every time I watch it.
Paramount Pictures presents Catch Me If You Can with a new 4K UHD transfer. Extras include:
- Catch Me If You Can: Behind the Camera
- Cast Me If You Can: The Casting of the Film
- Scoring: Catch Me If You Can
- Frank Abagnale: Between Reality and Fiction The FBI Perspective
- Catch Me If You Can: In Closing
- Photo Gallery
All of these extras were included with the original Blu-ray release in 2012. This set does include a Blu-ray release and a code for a digital download.
Despite being based on a true story that never actually happened, Catch Me If You Can is an utter delight and absolutely deserves your attention.
