ABOVE: A master of deception, Frank Abagnale (Leonardo Di Caprio) indulges in a little romance while enjoying a life of crime Below: Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) engages in a cat-and-mouse chase with Abagnale on a mission to bring the likeable rogue to justice

The perfect catch
Catch Me If You Can


Stars Leonardo Di Caprio, Tom Hanks, Liv Tyler. Rated M

Reviewer :: The Big Irish Git

At 17, Frank Abagnale was the most successful bank robber in American history.

Today he is a highly respected and immensely well-paid security consultant to those same banks as well as to the FBI and even to Australian and other foreign banks.

A bright, handsome, somewhat nerdish kid, Frank stumbled on a solution to his teenage angst by impersonating a teacher. In fact, he pulled off this stunt so successfully that neither students nor faculty twigged to his deceit for nearly six weeks.

Taking a prompt from fatherly guidance, Frank junior discovered that society and its institutions jumped to the beat of money and status. If you had either or both, you could go places. And the more you had the further you could go – a kind of success-breeds-success merry-go-round.

But Frank made another, more important discovery – if you pretend like you have money and/or social standing and can pull it off, society will let you, even help you, get on its exclusive merry-go-round.

Frank Abagnale was very, very good at pretending.

As an airline co-pilot he could readily cash a wage cheque and date the best bank tellers at the same time. He could also hop on a plane – free of course – and repeat the process in another town and another State.

This interstate fraud draws the attention of one Carl Hanratty, the FBI’s top fraud investigator.

Impressed by the scale and daring of Abagnale’s scheme, Carl knows he’s on to a big fish. But how to catch him is another thing.

Once the chase is on in earnest, that’s when the fun really starts.

Catch Me If You Can is a very fine take on a true story. It brings together three of Hollywood’s biggest names – Di Caprio, Hanks and Spielberg – in a collaboration that is certainly no pretender.

As you’d expect from Spielberg, every little detail is honed to bring the ’60s to life with understated authenticity. Sets and props, costume and coiffure are done to perfection, while the tempo and pathos never fail to hold attention for the full 140 minutes.

Hanks and Di Caprio perform to their usual high standards, embodying a fascinating, mutually respectful, adversarial, yet eventually close relationship that endures to this day.

Catch Me If You Can is a genuine, feel-good movie without the Hollywood schmaltz. Full of laughs and gags, it has the audience wondering how it could take America’s greatest thief to its heart and barrack for him all the way.

But then we’ve done that before – and the bad guy has not always been such a nice guy.

The Big Irish Git rates this movie 4 shamrocks

TICKET GIVEAWAY COMPETITION Last issue I mentioned that, thanks to Becker Entertainment, I’d have 150 double passes to see Dog Soldiers to give away. After getting a sneak preview of Dog Soldiers last week, I can tell you it’ll be well worth the effort to get your entry in – although the squeamish need not apply! Good luck. I’ll have a full review in the next issue of this paper. Send your name and address to Dogsoldiers@Beckers.com.au to be in the draw. Only one entry per person will be accepted.

You can view more than 100 other movie reviews by The Big Irish Git on his personal web site www.bigirishgit.com

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