\u201cCatch Me If You Can\u201d is the screen adaptation of the true story of Frank Abagnale Jr.; a boy who at the age of sixteen years old impersonates an airline pilot, a medical doctor and a lawyer and steals millions of dollars as he crisscrosses the United States and the rest of the world forging and passing bad checks.<\/p>\n
(Spoiler Alert \u2013 Skip down to last paragraph to avoid spoilers and read recommendation)<\/strong><\/p>\n Leonardo DiCaprio plays Frank Abagnale Jr. a New York city teenager whose parents Frank Sr. (played by Christopher Walken) and Paula are divorcing due to the IRS fraud investigation that has swallowed up Frank Sr.\u2019s livelihood.\u00a0 Rather than acknowledge his parents\u2019 split he runs away.\u00a0 And while trying to survive on his own he figures out how to impersonate adults like airline pilots and forge checks.<\/p>\n Eventually his successful check forging career catches the attention of the FBI\u2019s bank crimes division in the person of Carl Hanratty played by Tom Hanks.\u00a0 But for a while Frank\u2019s dead-heading from city to city on airline flights keeps him one step ahead.\u00a0 But eventually Hanratty learns Frank\u2019s true identity and Frank tries to throw him off his trail by laying low.\u00a0 He impersonates a doctor down in Atlanta at a small hospital.\u00a0 Eventually he tries to settle down with a nurse who wants to marry him.\u00a0 Her father (played by Martin Sheen) is a successful lawyer down in Louisiana and Frank convinces him that he\u2019s not only a doctor but also has a law degree and after (legitimately) passing the Louisiana bar exam he settles in to become his future father-in-law\u2019s assistant prosecutor.\u00a0 But just as the engagement is being celebrated Hanratty shows up and Frank bails out the back window and escapes.<\/p>\n Frank leaves the United States and travels around Europe and elsewhere but eventually Hanratty catches up to him in France and brings him back to America.\u00a0 He makes one last desperate break by escaping from an airliner bathroom through the pipe chase and escaping out of the taxiing plane.\u00a0 But Hanratty finds him when he tries to see his mother and drags him off to jail.\u00a0 He is convicted of grand theft and sentenced to twelve years in prison.<\/p>\n But over the course of several years Hanratty visits Frank in prison and decides the FBI could use his extraordinary knowledge of check fraud.\u00a0 He gets Frank released into Hanratty\u2019s custody and eventually Frank becomes a valuable asset to law enforcement and eventually becomes extremely rich perfecting fraud countermeasures for banks and other financial institutions.<\/p>\n This is a remarkably entertaining movie.\u00a0 I\u2019m assuming a lot has been stretched from the literal truth for the sake of enhancing the plot.\u00a0 But if even a quarter of the things he did in the movie are true, it\u2019s a remarkable story.\u00a0 Frank Jr.\u2019s brilliance as a criminal and a confidence man is contrasted with his search to restore the family life that is exploded in the beginning of the movie when his father\u2019s wealth is snatched away by the IRS and his wife leaves him.\u00a0 The interplay between these two facets of his existence gives poignancy to the story.\u00a0 The ironic aspect is that every Christmas Frank Jr. calls Carl Hanratty to talk and Carl figures out that Frank calls because he has no one else to talk to.\u00a0 It\u2019s a very strange relationship between the two of them but it is effectively portrayed.\u00a0 All the main characters are acted very ably and for once Spielberg directs a picture in a very balanced and well-paced way.\u00a0 I\u2019ll say this movie comes highly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cCatch Me If You Can\u201d is the screen adaptation of the true story of Frank Abagnale Jr.; a boy who at the age of sixteen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,237],"tags":[4844,4639,4845,4847,2389,4846],"class_list":["post-32770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-catch-me-if-you-can","tag-christopher-walken","tag-leonardo-dicaprio","tag-martin-sheen","tag-steven-spielberg","tag-tom-hanks"],"yoast_head":"\n