Gabe and I are back from break and with Christmas baggage in tow-on my end, Steven Spielberg’s “Catch Me If You Can.”
Every year, the movie industry pretty much reserves the month of December for the must-sees of any given Oscar period, and, surprising no one, 2002 was no different.
“Gangs of New York,” “About Schmidt,” “Chicago” and a slew of others graced screens (somewhat) nationwide throughout the Yuletide season, and if critical acclaim doesn’t lie, most are good enough to warrant the coveted Christmas release.
Who got the big Christmas Day slot? For my money, the best flick of the season was “Catch Me If You Can.”
Note the key word. Best flick, not best Oscar-heavy epic or best independent vehicle for a great performance. “Catch” is pure, inescapable (ha, a pun) fun. It’s, dare I say it, even cute. If you’re feeling randy, call it delightful. Regardless, know that it’s a good time for pretty much anybody.
Spielberg (“Minority Report”) has made a name for himself creating elaborate worlds for his pictures to live in. He’s known for his attention to detail, the fanciful moods his pieces evoke and his ability to bring the mysticism out of everyday objects and locations. In “Catch,” Spielberg turns his filmmaking eye to the innate wackiness of the 1960s.
“Catch” tells the true story of Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio, “Gangs of New York”) and Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks, “Road to Perdition”) and their unusual relationship: Abagnale is a teenage con man and Hanratty is the FBI agent trying to catch him.
Here’s the score: Abagnale frauds banks out of millions while wooing a wide assortment of women and flying for free (he impersonates a pilot). Hanratty (pronounced just like it’s spelled-a sort of running gag in the film) botches some dress shirts at a Laundromat and spends his Christmas at work. Abagnale impersonates a doctor and meets a nurse named Brenda (Amy Adams of “Serving Sara”-she’s rather good and immediately endearing in her smallish role). He proposes to her, meets her father (Martin Sheen, TV’s “The West Wing”), convinces him that he is a lawyer and passes the bar exam in Louisiana. Hanratty eats an Zclair and curses a lot. Abagnale lives in France for a while. Hanratty doesn’t really do much else.
Look, the movie isn’t really about the plot. Not to say the plot isn’t exciting, funny and at points even gripping. It’s just that “Catch” is, at the core, about Abagnale’s relationship with two people: his father (Christopher Walken of the “Prophecy” movies in a very odd and well-crafted performance-he’s already won a National Society of Film Critics award) and Hanratty.
DiCaprio wonderfully handles the differing desperation of both relationships. For that matter, he’s just wonderful. He even outshines Hanks in one of Hanks’ better efforts.
To explain: Hanratty is a role without much substance. Hanks brings him alive with enough quirks that I’m left feeling that there is a Carl Hanratty story waiting somewhere to be told as well, which, according to what I’ve read of the book, isn’t the case. Tom Hanks is good yet again. DiCaprio is just better.
He’s great. Academy Award great. No, I mean it. The kid’s good, as if he were ripped straight from Frank Abagnale’s own memories (he wrote the book, by the way). He’s smart, suave and satisfying. He doesn’t drag us along with him through these four fun years. He, well, cons us into following him willingly.
And I suppose I should leave it at that. “Catch” is ultimately about letting DiCaprio’s performance loose in a beautiful and finely crafted world of Spielberg’s creation and then letting Tom Hanks chase him around wielding a nifty accent and a posse of stereotypical agents. It’s fun moviegoing at its softhearted core. It’s just an added bonus that the technical work and acting is so very good as well.