Catch this if you can

Rating: 8/10 (28 November 2014)

"Catch Me If You Can" featured 3 big names: Spielberg, Hanks and DiCaprio. So it was a bit surprising the film scored only two Academy Award nominations despite great reviews. Christopher Walken (playing the main character's father) lost a probably very close race against Chris Cooper. Spielberg had worked before with Hanks ("Saving Private Ryan") and worked with him afterward again ("The Terminal"). In terms of Spielberg/DiCaprio and Hanks/DiCaprio it stayed the only collaboration. The book that this movie is based on was actually written by Frank Abagnale himself and he even has a small cameo playing one of the French cops who arrest "himself".
"Catch Me If You Can" is a true quality movie. It delivers in terms of comedy as well as drama (the scenes with his girlfriend's dad, the talk about the dog's name, his mother's cheating, the divorce scene, the scene at his mother's house at the end...). Even if it is illegal, it is so much fun to watch Abagnale Jr. trick the FBI and also everybody else. Scenes I found particularly funny were the French class scene very early in the movie, the prostitute scene, the first meeting with Hanratty or the scenes at the hospital where he gets sick just like he does in the cockpit. Oh and lets not forget about Abagnale's first appearance in court and the judge's reaction to his actions. I laughed a lot. And even when there is no DiCaprio on screen, there is occasionally some humor despite Hanratty being such a serious character, like when for example Abagnale's mother wants to take care of her son's wrongdoings with a quick check. The quiz show intro was a nice idea too.
There is so much love to detail in this movie that you could watch it a dozen times and would most likely still find something new. Abagnale is a fascinating character. Despite his illegal actions, he is likable to the audience just like he is likable to the newspapers mentioned in the movie. Maybe that is because all he actually wants is peace within his family: first his parents, then with his girlfriend. Every time he erupts and commits a crime, there was some trigger before that disturbed the peaceful family life. It all starts when his father and mother get a divorce. The way he runs away and hopes for them to make up throughout the whole film reminds me of the scene early on when his mother spills some wine and there is some trouble. He leaves the room to get something to clean it up and when he returns his parents are dancing peacefully. When he is about to have his own family much later, he does not want to do anything illegal again, but is haunted by the ghosts of his criminal past. He even tells his girlfriend his real name when she asks him to. The "Has anybody here seen Kelly"-scene is one of the most memorable of the movie. This is when Abagnale lets loose, loses his restlessness and truly transforms into a family person.
I liked Amy Adams here a lot and despite everything she has done afterward, this may very well be my favorite performance of hers. Another very good performance here comes from Christopher Walken, who plays maybe the most interesting character here. He definitely brings the best quotes to the table (why the Yankees win, the mouse metaphor). You cannot look away when he is on screen. You could almost call him a partner in crime to his son. His look at his son after the school principal tells Abagnale's parents about his son's pretending to be a teacher says it all. Later on, he tells Abagnale to keep going with what he does as he really caused trouble to the FBI big guys. Reason is probably his own struggles with financial authorities and he loves his son bothering them successfully. Apart from that, he is a really caring father and husband. While his wife immediately tells the FBI guys about her son, the father tells Hanratty he'd never do or say anything that could hurt his son. Sadly, at the end, we find out that the father was in fact the first mouse, the one that drowned and not the second who lived. The way he died is interesting too given the father-son talk about the car/train choice earlier. He fell down the stairs at the train station and broke his neck.
Finally, there is the relationship between Abagnale and Hanratty. Even if Abagnale becomes more and more Hanratty's Moby Dick, there seems to be a strange bond between these two. They talk to each other several times on Christmas as they both have nobody else to talk to. They are both slightly tragic characters. The prostitute scene against the launderette scene was pretty funny as it summarized their lives in a nutshell at that point (and how they got into contact with female underwear). And then there is the ending of course where we see how Hanratty saves Abagnale's life and even makes him his employee. He really seems unable to build up a relationship with his colleagues, but with Abagnale somehow it works at least to some extent, maybe because they are so good at what they do, even if their approaches are completely different and initially even at the opposite sides of the law. And they both have a sense of family as we see by Hanratty still with his wedding ring on and Abagnale asking him near the end to swear on his daughter.
There is really not much about this film that could have been better. I might have liked it even more if it had been completely chronological, but that's just me. I highly recommend watching this film. One of 2002's finest.