The most saccharine, sentimental depiction of sociopathy, ever

Rating: 3/10 (9 January 2009)

Frank is a con-(young)-man. He cashes fake checks totaling up to millions, cheats and lies his way into several professions, and charms several women onto his sheets...but that is just because he is a lonely, lost boy, because his father was always in money trouble, and he had a broken home. He writes sentimental letters to his father, offers him expensive gifts, and talks about his mother rejoining them. He is actually a genius, see, and, when given the chance, proves himself to be virtuous by helping the authorities. And he has good, honest, hardworking potential too!! -- he passed the bar exam all on his own after loads of studying. This movie struck me as so false throughout that I couldn't help but see through it and overcompensate for its dishonesty and false sentimentality by continuously re-imagining it: what might REALLY have happened? How sociopathic might Frank have been to lie, cheat and steal so easily and continuously? How many women might he have slept, really? And how many times did people catch on to him? A brief look at a wiki article proved my suspicions. Frank's first victim was his own father. He ran away from home and never looked back. He failed the bar exam several times and his passing may have involved bribery and other methods of cheating. After being placed in prison he tried to escape to Brazil but was caught repeatedly. His cons sometimes failed as people suspected his lies. If this story was even mildly hollywoodized, I would have been fine with it (and if the writing, acting and visuals weren't as bland). But it takes sentiment and dishonesty to the oomphth degree. Take for example the window scene near the end. It again reinforced the theme that Frank was just a lost and lonely boy who committed all these crimes because he missed his mother. And the cheesy label-removing motif. That was just a waste. Tom Hank's character was worst at the beginning when he was going room to room shouting comically and trembling like an old lady. He got slightly better at the end. Leonardo's character was as I mentioned unnatural and flat, so I guess he made the best of it. The female characters were very fake and comic-booky and annoying, yelling "yes, yes" during the sex scenes or crying after being yelled at by their boss and falling bashfully head over heels for the guy who comforts them. The worst offenders might have been the FBI and law enforcement folk who were a bunch of bumbling cartoonish idiots, too shy to reach their arms over for a fork. There were also a whole bunch of random scenes that didn't give anything to the movie. Some, like the prostitute scene seemed to be out of nowhere and would have fit in more if the whole movie wanted to show Frank as mildly sociopathic (which would have been more realistic). The one scene that I did like was when the agent came to France to see Frank's setup. Money flying everywhere and tilted camera angles gave it a cool look. But even then you are given the dishonest condition of Frank in stress and somewhat unraveling, a condition which screams at you, 'hey! look! look how worn out and rambling he looks! This criminal spree is taking a toll on him too, you know. He does have a heart!'