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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
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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
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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.
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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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