Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can
Film Review 4/2/2002
Well, after more than three years now of taking in Spielberg movies, and subsequently writing negative reviews, I can finally say here is a film that I like. It's not a spectacular film but, I can give it a definite nod of approval.
What is engaging about this
movie? It wouldn’t seem that much could
be. It’s about a con artist, and loosely based on the real guy. But, Americans like to see one of their own beat
the system, if you will. And that
is what got me. I couldn’t help
giggling as Leonardo DiCaprio (Frank Abanagle)duped suckers time and time again with a
stylistic flair. I don’t particularly
like D’Cap as a dramatic actor, but surprisingly in this one he was quite
good. His phony New York accent was not
too apparent, and he didn’t overact as he did in that sleep-fest,
Titanic.
Spielberg hooks us with comedic
sequences that demonstrate just how gullible, average, middle-class Americans
are. I say he ‘hooks’ because if you’re
like me, you identify with Frank Abanagle throughout his escapades. This movie is a comedy with a dramatic
substrate. No, not a black comedy, it
doesn’t mix the dark moods with light-hearted parody. We are aware this man is slowly leading himself to destruction,
but are captivated by his daring and slick wit as he’s ‘doing himself in’. The drama centers on his relationship with
his family, especially his father.
Played by Christopher Walken, he gives a strong by small performance in
this film. He sets tone from the
beginning. He gives the young Abanagle
not only the idea for a life of deceit, but the reason: he’s slowly descending
into poverty and losing all he loves.
His son wants to restore this fallen patriarch to his place of
honor. This core theme, however
serious, does not stop Catch If Me You Can, from dealing us some of the
most delicious bombastic sequences I’ve seen in a long time. Thereby, it gives us more of a reason to laugh,
than reflect on the inequity of Abanagle’s criminal enterprising. I found myself laughing aloud at each caper
D’cap pulls and thinking: Git’em Frank, as W.C. Fields said: Never give a
sucker an even break! If there is a
sequence done to perfection in the film, it’s got to be what I call the ‘Pull a
Model’ scene. Abanagle has set up
himself up as well-paid airline pilot, and with the help of many a counterfeit
check, has landed a suite in a swanky New York Hotel. He spys a famous model while entering his room and by chance strikes up
a conversation. By now, we know what’s
going to happen, but we don’t know how our super con-man is going to pull off
this romantic interlude. As the scene
unfolds, we see Abanagle get the girl into his lair. They start to neck and as things get hotter, our temptress has a change of heart. The pampered bitch decides, she would like to try a little exploitation of her own. She, however wants to exploit male passion. She sets her sights on the wealthy stranger's money. You get the impression this woman is a well-paid, tempermental, narcissistic child. She's used to getting what she wants. She
teases Abanagle with a Q &A about how much he’d pay to ‘lay’ her. I was inwardly laughing, knowing whatever she gets in money, it’s
worthless. So, now Spielberg’s got
greed, lust, a spoil-brat chick, and exploitation all going on in one scene. What a rich recipe. But, if that’s not a colorful enough mixture
for us, he adds the coup de grace as the scene comes to an end. The would-be lovers settle on an agreement of $1000 for sex, D’Cap asks his
signature line by now: Can I pay you with a check? The supermodel wants cash, but this is a hotel
that will honor airline checks so she agrees.
D'Cap whips out a $1,400 check and she is happy to accept it. But, he reminds her their deal is for
$1,000. She coyly pulls out $400 real
bucks from her bra, and calls it even. At
this point, I had to laugh out loud.
I thought of the degree to which this woman had just screwed herself. Why she's been screwed twice! I mean not only will he get it for
free but, she will actually pay HIM for screwing HER to the tune of $400
biggin’s!!! Not to mention what he's pulling on the hotel. Can you imagine the look on
the model's face when she finds out? Imagine her on the phone with one of her beauty pageant girlfriends: Do you know what this prick did? The sonabitch gave me a bad check. That's what he did! And I let'em screw me for nothing! For nothing, zilch, nada, nothing Hazel! Did you hear what I said! Nothing! I mean I'm sick, I'm, I'm ...(She thinks of the money she gave him)..and and and to think I gave'em $400 dollars Hazel! $400 dollars! What? Why did I do that? Well, because the prick had a check for $1400, oh, forget it, don't ask me any questions. Can't you see I'm upset enough? That sonabitch is probably having lunch with my money right now? At this point she breaks down into tears realizing the degree to which she has been conned.
It’s scene like that, which makes Catch Me
If You Can comedic cinema . The
idea of the outrage the ‘marks’ must feel after being taken is the coin on
which the humor of this film turns.
Spielberg doesn’t revisit the victims after each strike of the con man,
as he shouldn’t. The reaction is best
left imagined. As I did above. Abanagle is a Robin Hood
figure, that doesn’t rob the poor, only the institutions of American
culture (of course he never gives to the poor either). In this, we can identify with
him as a folk hero. More than that, we
can see how he uses the cultural currency of being suave, cool, good-looking, and unbelievably bold and daring to undo the trusting victims of this upper societal level. Abanagle is not a slimy
telemarketer duping senior citizens out of their life savings, or a pawnbroker taking
some drug addict’s electronic equipment.
He is getting his lucre from the very symbols of the nation: the airlines,
the medical profession and the banks. And of course, Abanagle's cons invariably involve pretty but, dumb women, being used by him. The model, the receptionist at the hospital and finally a whole entourage of gullible women are used like an implement in Abanagle's hands. To be fair, many a man is taken in by Abanagle. Never however are the male characters shown in such ignominy as the women. Abanagle's favorite prey are women for sure. None of whom seem to have the smarts to ever figure out they're being conned. If there are any women liberationists left, this very glaring aspect of the film won't go down well. Hey, the Berg can always say: It's based on a true story, broads! So, quit cha whining! You know Steve, if you don't look out somebody from NOW's gonna slap your face with a tampax! Did I write that? Excuse me ladies.
This film is not about Tom
Hanks (Carl Hanratty) chasing D’Cap
across the country, then to Europe for a dramatic capture, and rehabilitating him,
as it seems to be. It’s about a man
finding himself in a strange state of enabled power then letting it control
him, to finally fall victim to this addictive sense of power. It’s about a man
paradoxing himself.
Then there is Tom Hanks as Carl
Hanratty. I didn’t buy his strange
Boston accent, but his performance is memorable. He's got the lonely, straight-faced, humorless, FBI agent down pat. Still, Hanks has no dimension in this
film at all. We don’t see his life, he
has no love interests, we don’t see him at home wresting with the emptiness of
his lonely life. We see him chasing
D’Cap and consumed by his capture. This lack of scope to Hanratty serves his character well.We want to be in Abanagles's head not his. We want to focus on Abanagle's story not his. In this, Hanks has
played second string well.
And, now it’s time to fault the
Berg just a little. Why did he have to
put that escape from the airline jet in there?
It’s obvious this never occurred in the criminal career of the real
Abanagle. To make it worst, he has a
hokie scene in which D’Cap returns to his mother’s home (she’s remarried a rich
lawyer by now) and exchanges words with an angelic little girl inside. I mean this is cornball, in the extreme! The emotion in this scene is so out of
place with the rest of the film. It’s
phonier, than Abanagle’s career. It
moved no one, and played more like a throw back to E.T. than anything
else. There are other flaws along those
lines. For instance, the actress that plays his mother was bland and uninteresting. Not that her acting was substandard, just her part. Berg, ya could've given her more to do and be. Ah, but what the hell. Don't wanna give those women libbers another reason to slap your face.
Thumbs up for Catch If Me You
Can . Let me see now, that's three great ones (Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jurassic Park) and two bad ones (AI and Minority Report) You're still ahead in my book Berg.
Ken Wais 4/2/2002