A Dishonest Movie

Rating: 6/10 (17 January 2006)

!!!! MILD SPOILERS !!!
Much hyped as a true story on its release CATCH ME IF YOU CAN tells the tale of con artist extrodanaire Frank Abagnale Jr and FBI agent Carl Hanratty's attempt to catch him but the cold facts are this is not a true story - It's a Hollywood story inspired by real events and therefore the audience are required to do nothing more than pay their money at the box office , sit back and be entertained . Certainly they won't be expected to ask questions such as why is con man Abagnale being portrayed as some sort of misunderstood little boy lost
Right from the outset we're shown Abagnale's ability to con people as being a force of good . Check out the scene in the school where he takes the class bully down a peg or two " Ah " thinks the audience " Frank's a good guy , he's a man of morality " but I'm afraid he's not because he's a con artist and the story telling technique doesn't allow much thinking to be done by the audience . What about the scenes where he passes himself off as an airline pilot . Can anyone explain to me how he did this for many months and was never ever suspected of being a fraud ? Didn't anyone ever ask him seriously technical questions about flying a jet that caused alarm bells to be rung ? These questions are never answered
Abagnale also passed himself as a doctor where he falls in love with a young nurse lacking confidence called Brenda and this sub section of the story caused a few alarm bells to be rung in my head , so after I saw the movie I conducted some internet investigation only to find that while Abagnale was posing as a doctor a baby almost died under his care due to his own lack of medical knowledge . I ask you if the screenplay included this scene how would you feel about Abagnale then ? Exactly . All through the running time we're shown Frank Abagnale as some kind of cheeky chappie , a little bit naughty but hey he's a young good looking kid with no real harm in him . As John Ford said - " Always print the legend "
I can certainly understand why people enjoyed CATCH ME IF YOU CAN and won't criticise them for it and I can also understand why Spielberg and company decided to make an entertaining movie that doesn't dare get involved in any type of morality . It is unfortunate however that the director and everyone else involved are involved in fundamental dishonesty themselves