Merry Christmas Carl.......Talk to you next Christmas
Written: Dec 28 '02 (Updated Dec 29 '02)
Product Rating:
Pros: Supporting cast, good (True) story
Cons: A little long
The Bottom Line: In my opinion, one of the best movies Hanks has been in since Saving Private Ryan. I can't wait for the DVD to come out to see what was cut.
It's been a while since I've written any reviews, however, I thought this movie was so good, I had to write. Susan wanted to see a movie late yesterday afternoon and I knew what a fan she is of Tom Hanks, so I suggested we go see this in the newly remodeled St. Clair 10.
I didn't know (maybe I wasn't paying attention to all the hype as I rarely watch or read movie reviews and the last movie I saw in the theater was either Oceans Eleven or Swordfish) that this movie was based on the true story of Frank Abagnale Jr. This fact made it even more amazing the things Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) pulled off. To think that he was able to fool for five years all the people that he did as a teacher, a pilot, a doctor, a lawyer and even a Federal agent when he first meets FBI Agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks). Just goes to show what a good con artist Frank was until he was offered "a chance and friendship" by his "parole officer" (Carl) and an honest living.
Catch Me If You Can is set mostly in the late 1960's and early 1970's in several locations around the US. Frank was an only child and his dad is under investigation by the IRS (never really find out why in the movie). His parents get divorced and he runs away. As most runaways, I suspect, Frank turns to cons and scheming to make money.
Frank was extremely successful, impersonating several high profile characters and became extremely adept at forgery, especially checks. Frank eventually scammed more than 4 million dollars from throughout the US and foreign countries before getting caught in France and thrown into a US prison.
Carl and his two partners chase Frank around the US and eventually looses him in one of the most funniest scenes of the movie. Carl continues to track Frank around the world via the bad checks and finally figures out where he is headed. How Carl knew Frank would be in this spot on Christmas Eve, we'll never know....
Due to his knowledge of forgery, Frank gets paroled into Carl's supervision and becomes an FBI Agent. It was funny seeing Frank walk past Carl's two partners when he first comes in to work. The look on their faces was like "What is he doing HERE??"
For the first 10-20 minutes, the movie jumped around quite a bit making it a little difficult to follow, but hey, this was setting up the story line. The rest of the movie was great with little profanity and an almost topless scene and sex is implied in a few scenes.
The story line, "the chase" and even the score reminded of the old great Pink Panther movies. Except that Carl is not the bumbling idiot Peter Sellers was, although there are a few moments where Carl shows his "human side" and that he's not perfect. Hanks even has a couple memorable light comedy lines in the movie, however, his "Boston" accent is more humorous as it's horrible. I thought he was from New York or New Jersey until I read some other reviews.
Susan and I both thought this was a great movie and we'll buy the DVD when it comes out.
Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Frank W. Abagnale's autobiography CATCH ME IF YOU CAN follows the cat-and-mouse chase of Abagnale Leonardo DiCaprio a...More at Family Video
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