The Great Escape Artist

Rating: 10/10 (22 December 2007)

While it was easy for me to believe that Steven Spielberg could direct such pictures such as Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan or Minority Report where each of those films tackle subjects or showed realism of certain events, Catch Me If You Can surprised me as one of those films where for once he could show the other side of him without losing his touch.
In "Catch Me If You Can," Leonardo DiCaprio is the central character for which he plays William Abagnale Jr., a young man who looks up to his father William Sr. (Christopher Walken) in which all the son observes is how to lie and B.S. people to getting what he wants. In one particular scene, William is at a public school dressed in his old private uniform outfit and fools a classroom in believing that he is a teacher and not just some puny student. The rise and fall from grace starts after William sees his father and mother getting a divorce which leads him to be like normal teenagers in running away from their parents and trying to use his father's wisdom in succeeding by fooling people, especially pretending to be a pilot for Pan Am Airports.
After stealing nearly a million dollars in cash from pretending to be the pilot, Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) is on the hunt to look for William in which on one occasion, he meets the young man face to face at a hotel in Florida and thinks he has him until he is coaxed by William pretending to be a secret agent.
By using alias names from comic books, William is having different professions from a smoothing playboy, a doctor and a lawyer to get by making ends meet and at the same time falling in love with a girl by the name of Brenda (Amy Adams) who got kicked out by her parents after she got an abortion. Only time will come when young William will be caught and the truth will be revealed.
Catch Me If You Can surprised me as a film about con artists and also a film about identity for which a person can surprise others in the way they present themselves and pretend to be something they are not. In a film with an all star cast from Leonardo DiCaprio proved that he is growing up and leaving all the teeny bop roles behind; Tom Hanks is a mixture of comic relief and drama for which he just wants to make sure that William Jr. is safely caught before getting killed just as Christopher Walken proves that despite playing eccentric characters or people on the brink of insanity, he can play anything smooth.