Falsely categorized

Rating: 7/10 (30 March 2003)

One thing that strikers me at IMDB is that the films there always carry so many genre titles. Catch me if you can is one of them. Virtually every category that was ever invented is listed, despite the fact that this is clearly what we (in Dutch) would call a speelfilm' or a spielfilm' in German. I do not know if there is a translation for it in genre' terms, but it roughly means motion picture'. You see this is just the story of a young fraud with not too much adventure, thrills or drama in it although featuring a lot of crime.

I think that after this film, there will be a time of quiet surrounding Steven Spielberg, because it is the way he's done it previously. Hook (1991), Jurassic Park (1993) and Schindler's List (1993), then taking a 4 year break from making movies; Amistad (1997), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Saving Private Ryan (1998), then taking a 3 year break and now AI (2001), Minority Report (2002) and Catch me if you Can (2002) making a ??? year break I presume. Why do I make this list you wonder well, I do it to make a point. The point is, that I think that Spielberg will take a bit of a break now and that I think he needs one, because the last films he has made weren't really good. I mean you obviously cannot keep making Schindler's List's or Jurassic Park's but there is something missing lately in Spielberg's work. I miss that feeling that I'm watching the films of someone who never stopped being a small child and I miss the feeling. I mean let's face it, in AI Spielberg tried to insert that dreamy side of himself, but it failed because the Spielberg ending did not fit the Kubrick story, then there came Minority Report which proved that Spielberg is not the best in making thrilling crime movies and now there is Catch me if you Can a film that has a pretty nice story, but also a film that is neither good nor bad. It is entertainment, in it's most normal form and nothing one would assume to have been made by Spielberg. It's not as if I'm not happy with the choices that he makes, but I feel that he could bring more feeling into his film. One could have felt more involved, the film could have been more dramatic and more moving. What happened Mr.Williams' great scores (I know he got an Oscar nomination, but I cannot remember one bit of film, where the music stuck out). This film is just not Spielberg's territory and it shows, for it is not as outstanding and memorable as his other work. Spielberg's territories clearly are adventure (JP, Indiana), Drama (Color Purple, Amistad, Schindler's List) and Family films (Hook, E.T.) and maybe he could even pull off dark film like AI if he didn't try to convert it in a fairy tale at the end.

7 out of 10
post scriptum reminder to self: post more comments on unusual, emotionally gripping and / or meaningful films (Amélie, The Royal Tenenbaums, Donnie Darko, Finding Forrester) than on successful mainstream Hollywood entertainment