Living in a Shadow

Rating: Null/10 (12 January 2003)

Catch Me If You Can, the story of the former con man Frank Abagnale Jr.(Leonardo DiCaprio)who swindled several million dollars from major corporations in the 1960's while posing as an airline pilot, a doctor and a lawyer, was a pleasant surprise for me from director Steven Spielberg. What could have been a by the numbers biography filled with his trademark sentimental moments and easy answers turned out to be a cleverly nuanced and low key picture on the nature of what living up to expectations means and how those expectations can define us throughout our lives.
Abagnale Jr. is portrayed in this film as the loving son of a father(Christopher Walken) and mother(Nathalie Baye), although he clearly dotes on Frank Sr. When his father starts to experience financial trouble with the IRS his idyllic life starts to change, first forcing the family to move to more affordable, and subsequently much smaller, living accommodations and then in his transfer to a public school from a private one. In these times it is seen that his father is an humbled but angry man who insists the government is out to get him and everyone else, a point he stresses with his son that makes an indelible impact. Early on, from subtle examples from his father, Frank Jr. learns that to get ahead you have to break a few rules and that this is okay because the system will just screw you if you don't do the same to them first. Even after pulling a rather audacious prank in his new school, his father offers no moral example or punishment for his son, instead finding humor and a sense of living vicariously through someone who has not been broken by the system he feels has wronged him so.
His parents eventually divorce after the financial strain proves too much and young Frank runs away to make his fortune in the world. In a whirlwind of cons and trickery that would seem impossible if it had not actually happened he makes quite a life for himself, amassing wealth and minor prestige while pretending to be successful in several different walks of life. While this goes on though he still stays in touch with his father, trying to help him out financially while seeking approval for what he is doing at the same time. Again lacking any kind of moral center or explanation for the clearly pained young man, his father can only cheer on his son's exploits enviously and proudly. His dreams have been so shattered by his failures that this is all he is really capable of.
But this is not the life Frank Jr. wants, and this is evidenced by his sporadic contact in the forms of late night phone calls with the FBI Agent(Tom Hanks) obsessed with catching him and his attempts to settle down with a girl he meets while pretending to be a doctor. He longs for family and stability, but is still driven by the only thing he knows, which is to get one over on the establishment. While I would imagine there was an element of thrill involved the underlying motivation is fairly clear, even if the message is taken perhaps too literally from his father.
It's this dichotomy that made this film work for me, and this struggle between doing what Frank Jr. really wants and what he feels he must do is told so well that it's hard not to admire it. There are never any really overt messages being thrust into the viewers face, no moral code that should be learned by watching which could have been very easy to do considering the subject matter at hand. No this isn't a story about redemption because it's right by way of an ethical sense but because it's right for Frank Jr. He overcomes his past, his code as it were, to do what makes him happy. It just so happens that it turns out to be the "right thing" after all.