The world was collectively stunned by the escapades of the Tinder scammershocked by the puppeteer, and startled by Billy McFarland. However, they don’t make them like Frank Abagnale anymore. In a 2017 interview, he told the Wall Street Journal that it’s significantly easier to be a scammer in the modern day than when he was at the height of his infamy, due to the emergence of the internet and the ease of cyber-attacks. .
Posing as a doctor, lawyer, teacher and most importantly a commercial airline pilot, the fraudster defrauded millions of companies in the process. A man of great charisma, shameless audacity and a charming character made him one of the most sympathetic career criminals on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. Steven Spielberg directed a biographical comedy-drama based on the autobiography of the titular character, who claimed to be a self-made millionaire by age 19. Later this year catch me if you can turns 20, four years older than young Frank was when his life as an artist of the sort took quite literally flight.
The real fresh prince of Pan Am Air
Living in the leafy suburbs of New Rochelle, New York, Frank was an only child raised by his father and namesake, Frank Abagnale Sr. (himself a minor swindler), and French mother Paula. Frank Jr. develops a penchant for scams and initially poses hilariously as a substitute teacher and driver. After the devastating revelation that his mother was having an affair with his father’s boyfriend, the news of their impending divorce makes Frank a runaway.
Drastically running out of money, Frank comes up with the idea of impersonating a Pan Am pilot while fraudulently cashing counterfeit checks. Leonardo DiCaprio is simply sublime in his portrayal as the slick, cunning, astute and wise beyond his years Frank Abagnale Jr. DiCaprio’s on-screen presence really captures Frank’s youthfulness and the degree of charm and conviction it takes to pull off such an elaborate stunt, not once, but over a thousand times. As they say, the sky’s the limit.
Catch me if you can carrots for the criminal
Ordinarily, fraudsters are an abhorred breed, with low lives who tend to prey on the vulnerable. Conversely, Frank is anything but odious. We’re on his side of the fence as he goes from profession to profession, mimicking doctors in surgery, and as a lawyer in trial, this is partly because he’s just a brash, misguided adolescent, but also due to the fact that he focuses on these huge, often tax-evasive, corporations that are almost making money in a laced way.
There’s a fragile innocence in DiCaprio’s presentation of Frank, who rears his head from time to time to remind the audience of his young age, from a drink in the cockpit, with Frank endearingly asking for milk, to his phrase, “Please take contact Joanna Carlton in tenth grade and tell her I’m sorry I couldn’t take her to the prom.”
A true story of cat and mouse
In this cat-and-mouse story infinitely more complicated than… Tom and Jerry, DiCaprio is the Jerry, and Tom Hanks is the, well, Tom. The Forrest Gump star takes on the identity of agent Carl Hanratty who, in a more conventional film of this nature, would play the heroic protagonist; instead, he takes on the role of the primary antagonist.
But, unlike most enemy cops, Agent Hanratty is a lovable character with a quiet, affectionate admiration for his teenaged opponent who always seems to be one step ahead. Even when Hanratty is confronted by a clambering Abagnale, Frank miraculously manages to trick his seasoned nemesis by already appearing on the scene as a Secret Service agent.
Hanks is sincere in his portrayal of Hanratty, forever breathless as he walks through airport terminals and hotels clinging to Frank’s slippery fur. He is honest, very principled and respectful of Frank, even though he is only a child; if Hanks himself was a man of the law, you’d expect him to be like that. While it may be hard to believe, due to the reputation of the police, Hanratty is also based on a real person of the same name.
Catch me if you can is a different kind of real crime
catch me if you can is an effortless watch that strikes such a perfect balance between comedy, action and these heartbreaking moments. There is a real momentum to the pace, and unlike Frank, it stops while leading the way. Importantly, despite the subject being a prolific and subsequently convicted felon, the tone is never too serious, and the humor in what Frank achieves is remarkably well preserved.
In the landscape of true films and docuseries, where criminals and cases are investigated so obscurely, catch me if you can is a real anomaly. The film doesn’t get involved in trying to make a point, as is so often the case with films that want to add credibility by using subtle socio-political undertones. catch me if you can instead, he prides himself on his primary purpose: to entertain and tell a story so incredible that, for the sake of integrity in filmmaking, it simply had to be true.