The Captain Sinks The Ship

Rating: 1/10 (10 January 2003)

I love a good "con" flick and when I read about the exploits of Frank Abagnale recently in the prerelease publicity for this movie I was psyched to see this flick. Hey, it even has Steven Spielberg directing with a huge budget!
The story as it was told in the publicity for the movie left me filled with anticipation because I could not understand how a teenager could do what Frank Abagnale is reported to have done, and after watching "Catch Me If You Can" I still don't know how he could have done what he is supposed to have done.
Obviously this is a big problem, and the problem exists because Spielberg does not understand how Abagnale could have done these otherworldly things.

Spielberg took the lazy way out; he decided that because the events are supposed to be "true" (hey the FBI says they are!) he as director was under no obligation to convince us.
Wrong!
If you want to see a great "con" flick see the film masterpiece known as "The Sting". That was not "based on a true story" and thus George Roy Hill understood that for the film to work he had to make us believe that Redford and Newman could pull off such a caper and he succeeded so well that under repeated viewings we have no doubt that these two could both devise such a plot, find the "talent" to do the job and lead them successfully to the end.
In "Catch Me If You Can" Tom Hanks playing the FBI agent who tracks Abagnale around the country and in Europe (though he apparently went to South America as well and Spielberg or not South America never seems to fit into the budget) asks Abagnale to the very end how he passed the Bar exam to be an attorney in Louisiana.
We never get a believable answer. After 2 hours and 22 minutes we don't know how a teenager could work as a doctor in a hospital (and in a supervisory capacity over other doctors no less!) or become a prosecutor (!) in Louisiana.
What you will get though is all the "big budget Spielberg" that you could expect along with all the other Spielbergisms that you are familiar with. That's the problem with "Catch Me If You Can", it's a story that needed the recently departed George Roy Hill, but instead was bought by the director of "The Color Purple".