Tom Hanx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christopher Walken
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Based on the true story of Frank Abagnale Jr., a young con artist who managed to pass himself off as several identities - an airline pilot, a doctor and a lawyer engaged to the District Attorney’s daughter - made a fortune with forged cheques and dazzled women with his wealth and accomplishments - all this before he was 19 yrs old.
The movie makes some attempt to explain Abagnale’s behavior through adolescent trauma. Frank Jr.’s childhood is a happy one until his French mother Paula (Nathalie Baye) cheats on her husband (Christopher Walken) and walks out. How Frank became a conman is just a guess, but the movie seems to imply that when he discovers how much he can get away with (like the substitute teacher part), he keeps going on and on and on.
Tom Hanks is Carl Hanratty (always having a problem making people understand his name - it sounds like Handwriting), an FBI agent who is hot in pursuit of Frank. Frank once fools Carl by posing as a Secret Service official on the conman’s tail. Much of the pleasure of the movie comes from its enjoyment of Abagnale’s strategies. He doesn’t seem to plan his cons very well - they seem too simple, but he takes advantage of opportunities that fall in his way. Hanratty is hot on his tail but never manages to catch Frank till the end.
The story is told in flashback style, after Frank was captured in France, more than two years after he started cheating the banks. There are moments when the movie seems slow, and I never really understood Christopher Walken’s repeated appearance.