Catch Me If You Can: A Quick Review

Steven Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can" was visually stunning and generally just a really fun, entertaining movie all the way through. This came out in 2002, a whole 6 years before Steven Spielberg and George Lucas decided to completely destroy Indiana Jones and leave him writhing in pain (although I still love Steven Spielberg - anyone who directed "Jaws," the "Indiana Jones" trilogy, "Schindler's List," "Saving Private Ryan," etc is great by me...so I blame George Lucas and his unhealthy obsession with computer generated effects and ruining franchises). Well anyway, the cast of "Catch Me If You Can" is amazing and includes the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio (who is actually a really good actor - I'm just a little indifferent toward him), Tom Hanks (who is one of my favorite actors and one of the best actors of the past 20 years or so), Christopher Walken, Amy Adams, and Martin Sheen. Most know the story but here goes anyway: Leonardo DiCaprio plays Frank Abagnale Jr., a brilliant con artist who made millions of dollars by pretending to be a doctor, pilot, and lawyer. This was all done before he turned 19, which is why I referred to him as a brilliant con artist instead of just a normal one who takes a while to learn his "trade" (this movie is based off a true story by the way, for those who didn't see/read that on the poster above). Then Tom Hanks comes in as the FBI man, Carl Hanratty who tries for a few years to catch Abagnale...if he can. The movie starts in 1964 and finishes up 3 years later with a little bit of switching back and forth from the past to the present. This works well for the movie and helps get a look at how the events unfold. Leonardo DiCaprio is convincing as Abagnale and is great at faking various jobs as well as having some good on screen chemistry (although different kinds) with Christopher Walken (Frank Abagnale Sr.), Tom Hanks, and Amy Adams. The music is fantastic, which is what I personally have come to expect from John Williams who composes the scores for all Steven Spielberg movies. It fits the comedic/dramatic tones of the movie extremely well. The cinematography is great to look at as well, having some portions of a scene out of focus, close ups of characters, and just general very fluid, wonderful camera work. This was done by Janusz Kaminski (one of the few reasons why "Funny People" wasn't a terrible movie), who is a great cinematographer, just look at all the other movies that he worked on with Steven Spielberg. The movie suceeds at being at times very serious while never forgetting to throw a fair amount of humor in there. The dialogue is great and good thing too, because wasting this cast and crew would have been a terrible thing. "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan" won Steven Spielberg a combined 3 Academy Awards and are such great, powerful movies, destined to become classic. But don't let that take away from "Catch Me if You Can" which proves that as of 2002 Steven Spielberg could still round up a great group of people to work with and make a memorable film.

-Joseph Sbrilli