Catch Me if You Can
I’ve loved this movie from the first time I saw it, but like Chicago which I watched just before this viewing, it’s one of those movies I always forget about. It just doesn’t seem cool to praise this movie too much, even though it’s Spielberg, it’s like, too glossy… maybe it’s just a personal prejudice – whatever, if it is… I don’t get it either.
The brilliant title sequence totally belies the heaviness of some of this film, and shows how personal Spielberg might get in his future movies, particularly one I recently read about which he describes as being very autobiographical. Leonardo Di Caprio plays the small but crucial age range of Frank Abagnale perfectly… even when he’s beginning to play it cool, he still shows the child when it goes wrong, absolute fear, and it’s amazing how much he looks as he looked in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, his break-out movie nearly a decade earlier, when he’s playing Frank at his youngest. Gilbert Grape has a much quirkier performance which is probably why Di Caprio was nominated for the Oscar, but this performance is equally brilliant, showing a real knack for comedy but with real intensity, in the fear already mentioned and in particular the last scene on the plane back to America, his reaction to the news I won’t mention for fear of spoilers.
Christopher Walken and Tom Hanks also deliver great performances, both portraying the honest guys… while Frank goes off in the best hotel suites, the best jobs, the best girls, never being honest, these two are the severe contrast – Walken incessantly pursued by the IRS, not knowing what a chilled salad fork is; Hanks ever humiliated by the 17-year-old fugitive, eating chinese food, perceived as a grinch by his colleagues, withered Christmas tree in the background. I love the Christmas tree… it’s one among many major contrasts which are shown between the lucrative criminal and the practically poverty-stricken pursuers, but it’s my favourite. It’s so sad, so real, but also, so funny.
John Williams’ score is one of his best. The “Recollections” theme on a lone saxophone always instantly makes me want to cry… I can’t explain it, I’ve studied music theory but forgotten it and I’m glad – music is something I love to listen to, perform, and compose, but I never want to explain it or its effect. All I can say is, it makes me cry.
The opening and closing of the movie, too, contrast with this bitter-sweetness. The TV show introduction, showing three people posing as Frank, one the real Frank, the goal of the show to determine which is real. This is perfectly done, Frank seemingly trying to look the liar, blinking like the guy next to him while the guy next to him tries desperately not to blink when telling “the truth”. And the closing titles, describing what happened to Frank afterwards, now earning millions for cheques he designed for Fortune 500 companies… it’s like the current hacker situation, that complex issue, the way evil can sometimes lead to good. It just really says how mad the world can be. My take anyway 