MOVIE CRITIQUE:
"Catch Me if You Can" is a light on its feet comedy that just flies off the screen. As such, it is difficult to realize the mastery of all the participants involved necessary to bring this warm hearted and often quite funny tome into the theater.

Comedies are always the poor country cousins of drama when it comes to handing out awards, but it has always been my opinion that doing a great comedy is far more difficult than doing a great drama. One wrong facial tic, a millisecond delay in the timing of a
delivery, and the whole joke falls flat. Enough of these errors and the whole movie falls flat.

I am not going to argue that "Catch Me if You Can" is one of the best movies of the year and worthy of numerous Oscar nominations. But it is a darn good movie and Christopher Walken's tortured turn as the failed father to Leonardo DiCaprio's role as Frank Abagnale, Jr., is certainly worthy of his being considered for an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Special mention must also be made of the opening screen credits to this movie, which are the best that I have seen in many years. They are fully worthy to some of the classics of yesteryear like the one introducing the great Preston Sturgis comedy, "The Lady Eve"(1941). (I sometimes wish there would be a special Academy award for opening screen credits in order to give greater encouragement for the creation of other equally original efforts in
this area.)

Also, the long standing teamwork of Spielberg's movies along with the musical scoring provided by John Williams continues with this movie. His deft musical touch here adds further lightness to this story of a con man during the late Sixties who is fleet of foot and even more fleet of mind.
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FILM SYNOPSIS:
Frank Abagnale, Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) is the son of a military officer who won the heart of his French wife, Paula (Nathalie Baye), after liberating her small home town from the Germans during World War Two. Ever since then he has had trouble living up to that glorious moment with a very checkered business career, financial problems, and constant battles with the IRS over back taxes.

Paula has always loved her husband, Frank, Sr. (Christopher Walken), but their never ending financial straits have worn her down to the point where she has lost her loyalty to him. Losing their comfortable suburban home and having to move into a small third floor walk up was the last straw and now Paula has finally given in to the romantic intentions of Frank's fellow Rotarian, suave and successful Jack Barnes (James Brolin).

Soon divorced, Frank Senior retreats further into debt with the loss of another business venture just as his son, Frank, Junior, is graduating from high school. This was during the late Sixties when airlines were still highly profitable and flying was considered to be a glamorous luxury. Better yet, being an airline pilot was the best job that any guy could hope for and being an airline stewardess was the most romantic job that any young girl
could dream of.

The mystery of a flight to almost any destination held every child of both sexes in thrall and the sight of a pilot in a uniform would cause hope to rise in the chest of any young guy while causing the heart of every young girl to jump into a romantic overdrive.

Frank's dad gives him a checking account with $25 in it when he turns 18, and Frank, Jr., is immediately captivated by the possibilities of credit. When his checks soon started bouncing from overdrafts, however, his attention then turns to other ways to provide funds for his account.

Touring a Pan Am corporate museum, Frank is told more than he should have been by a naive tour guide fascinated by this young man's interest in planes, flying, and pay checks. Observing that the Pan Am logo on a toy airplane is identical to the Pan Am logo on a paycheck, he tries forging a Pan Am paycheck. Discovering that banks in those days are far too trusting with corporate paychecks, Frank quickly buys up loads of toy planes and begins forging Pan Am paychecks in gay abandon.

Further ascertaining where the clothing needs of Pan Am flight personnel are being met, Frank quickly suits up in Pan Am blues with fake identity cards and starts flying all over the country for free. A side benefit of this new fake identity is the free wheeling sex life style of the jet set and Frank is soon enthralled by his bedroom "date" with a very attractive young lady. Many more are to follow.

This is all thought to be a game until Frank realizes that the FBI is hot on his trail for forging checks for more than $1.3 million dollars. Agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) of the FBI check fraud division chases Frank down twice only to have him slip through his clutches each time.

When Agent Hanratty starts closing in once again, Frank chucks it all to assume the new identity of a medical doctor. By now his forgery techniques for documents, identification cards, graduation degrees, and everything else necessary to assume a new identity has been perfected. Watching television medical dramas during the day to pick up the medical lingo, Frank soon lands a job as a night shift emergency room doctor known as "Dr. Frank Conners" in a metropolitan hospital.

His downfall comes when he takes pity on a "candy striper" nurse, Brenda Strong (Amy Adams), who mistakenly assumes that he is a medical doctor in his thirties. Feeling sympathy for her because her parents have rejected her because of an earlier abortion,
Frank gallantly proposes marriage and then flies off with her to meet her parents in New Orleans.

Her father, Roger Strong (Martin Sheen), and her mother, Carol Strong (Nancy Lenehan), are initially suspicious, but Frank once again wins them over when he claims to have attended the same California law school as did Roger, who is now a powerful Louisiana state prosecutor.

Frank takes the Louisiana state bar exam after only two weeks of study, and actually passes it. This is something of great curiosity later to FBI agent Hanratty, who is still hot on Frank's trail. You have to remember that Frank is still only about 19 years old when all of this is happening.

Nothing this good, however, can last forever, and agent Hanratty eventually gets his man after Frank has fled to France and forged more checks. The delight of this often very funny movie, however, is after the movie has finished when an epilogue is told that is guaranteed to bring down the house.