Catch Me If You Can – Movie Review

*MINOR SPOILERS*

Now for a couple of years people have been telling me to watch this film, and before doing any research I went onto YouTube and checked out the 2002 trailer. I got :48 seconds in, turned it off, and proceeded to watch the film. That’s how excited I was to see this movie. Did it live up to my expectations? Well, let’s find out.

Catch Me If You Can is a 2002 biography/crime film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the real life of Frank Abagnale. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Abagnale, a man who successfully performed cons worth millions of dollars by posing as a Pan American World Airways pilot, a Georgia doctor, and a Louisiana parish prosecutor. The film follows the life of Abagnale as he is being pursued by the FBI, or more specifically Mr. Carl Hanratty who is played by the talented Tom Hanks.

Although I like to review films I have never seen before, there were a bunch of elements throughout this film that seemed familiar, although I’m almost 100% sure that I have in fact never seen this movie before. Anyways, lets start off talking about the characters in this film. Holy cow did Spielberg have a huge ensemble of grade A celebrities. It was crazy seeing the amount of talent in this film, and each character was well defined and performed. I mean the list goes on and on and it’s just insane. I did have some moments while watching this film when DiCaprio was on screen and I couldn’t stop thinking, “Damn.. That’s Dane DeHaan.” I use to always say that DeHaan was the new DiCaprio, but it was now more than ever that those similarities were in fact true. Moving on, DiCaprio was phenomenal like always, and Hanks was outstanding as well. Honestly, is there ever a bad film with either of these two actors? I seriously have nothing to gripe about when it comes to characters in this movie because they were just absolutely flawless. Actually, scratch that.. Jennifer Garner’s character was pointless, and I just don’t find her attractive or that good of an actor. Sorry, that’s my opinion.

The plot. What did I think about the plot? Well, that’s where I feel this movie lost some of its pizzazz. Yeah.. I’ll never use that word again.. It wasn’t that the plot/story was boring, I just felt it took a strange approach by letting the audience know that FBI agent Hanratty already found Abagnale within the first few scenes in the movie. Like, that just gives away all the fun and suspense of the story, not to mention plot development. From the first scene we’re told he’s caught, so then what’s the point of watching the movie? Where’s the plot development in that? Yeah, I know it’s a different way of story telling, and yes I know that catching him wasn’t just the end. Heck, Spielberg even went on to state this, “I did not make this film about Frank Abagnale because of what he did.. but because of what he has done with his life the past 30 years.” I understand why he went that way, it’s just I felt like it wasn’t the right move when it came to telling Abagnale’s true story.

There wasn’t much else that I found wrong or exceptionally great about this film. It had some great comedic moments, and I felt that it was an entertaining flick all the way till the end. How much of it is true is beyond my knowledge, but for a man to get away with so much.. it’s kinda crazy. I will say that other than the great characters and their development, this did not feel like a Spielberg film. It just didn’t have that masterful touch that I usually get from his other films. Is that bad? Well, no. It just doesn’t feel like his best movie. So in conclusion I gave Catch Me If You Can a “Good” on theVade Review Bar. Although I wanted to give it an “Alright” this film’s characters and actors were outstanding and really made this film a good movie. The small issues with how the story was told, and Jennifer Garner’s character (kidding) really held this film down from being a truly memorable one. If this film showed each event in chronological order this movie would have had great suspense and would have be a great movie overall, yet all it really gives us was Jennifer Gardner, and no one really wants that.