Today’s quick review: Catch Me If You Can. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Frank Abagnale, Jr., a young man with a talent for forgery and deception. He discovers that he can get anything he wants just by lying about it in the right way. Altering a few digits on a fraudulent check can fool the system long enough to take the money and skip town. Stealing a pilot’s uniform and assuming a fake identity can get him free flights to anywhere in the world. Abagnale travels the world in luxury, taking on new identities as it pleases him. But the FBI catches onto his fraud and sends Carl Hanratty, played by Tom Hanks, on a years-long hunt to find Abagnale and arrest him. With Hanratty on his trail and the novelty of the con wearing thin, Abagnale struggles to stay ahead of the feds and find meaning in a life of lies.
Catch Me If You Can is a gripping con story that is based on the memoirs of real-life con artist Frank Abagnale, Jr. The story is faithful to the book, albeit with some abridging, but even without embellishment, Abagnale’s exploits are as incredible as any fiction. At various points in his career, Abagnale poses as a pilot, a con artist, and a lawyer. He is frequently out of his depth, and much of the charm of the movie comes from seeing the tricks he uses to cover for his lack of genuine qualification. The tension between his nomadic life as a con artist and his growing desire to put down roots makes for some nice drama. The relationship between Abagnale and Hanratty mostly plays out over a distance, but the grudging respect between them is satisfying nonetheless.
Catch Me If You Can is a well-constructed drama with good acting, an interesting story, and a surface layer of charm and mischief that comes from the con lifestyle. Its adherence to real events gives it the flavor of memoirs: less a plot than a sequence of events with convenient starting and stopping points. Watch Catch Me If You Can when you’re in the mood for a real-life con story with good drama and a touch of humor. Skip it if you prefer a larger cast or a more structured story, or if true stories, no matter how incredible, hold little interest for you.
8.0 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.5 for high quality within the confines of a true story; the IMDB score may be more reliable here.