DVD Talk > Reviews > Catch Me If You Can

Catch Me If You Can

Paramount // PG-13 // $22.98 // December 4, 2012

Review by Adam Tyner | posted December 5, 2012

R E P L A Y

A D V I C E

Highly Recommended

E - M A I L

this review to a friend

R E V I E W S

Graphical Version

Of the many dozens of films that Steven Spielberg has helmed throughout the course of his career, perhaps none is more unfairly dismissed than Catch Me If You Can. At least to a point, I get that. When someone has such a staggering number of epic, important, and intensely personal films under his belt as Spielberg does, it's easy for something that the director himself describes as "an upbeat dessert

[click on the thumbnail to enlarge]

of a movie" to fall through the cracks. Don't get needlessly distracted by trying to figure out where it stacks up with the rest of Spielberg's filmography. Visually sumptuous, brilliantly acted, infectiously fun, and more resonant than most people give it credit for, Catch Me If You Can is an underrated gem that deserves a second chance now that it's found its way to Blu-ray.

If Frank Abagnale, Jr. hadn't led such a startlingly cinematic life in reality, a screenwriter somewhere would have to invent it. Traumatized by his parent's divorce and on his way to being a second-generation financial foul-up, Abagnale (Leonardo DiCaprio) somehow stumbled into the life of a con man. While most kids his age were finishing up their senior year of high school, Abagnale was passing himself off as a pilot for one of the most prestigious airlines the world over, cashing bogus homebrew checks on Pan Am's dime, and flying just about anywhere he could dream up for free. He didn't just pretend he was a doctor; Abagnale wormed his way into a supervisory position at a hospital. This teenaged high school dropout convinced people who really ought to know better that he had his medical license and passed the bar, even taking a position as an assistant prosecutor down in Louisiana. Heck, Abagnale dupes the FBI agent who's been hounding him all over the country, following his endless trail of bad checks, into believing he's a Secret Service agent! See, back then in the 1960s, Abagnale's forged checks ranked him among the most successful bank robbers in this nation's history, making off with millions without even having to raise a pistol.

Still, though, Abagnale isn't a cold, calculating, exploitative monster; he's a kid who's gotten caught in the riptide of his own racket. Because Abagnale's targets are faceless corporations and monolithic banks, and since his only weapons are charm and printing know-how, it really doesn't even feel like he's hurting anyone...that this is all just multimillion dollar teenaged mischief. Even Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), the FBI agent tasked with hunting down Abagnale, can't help but feel some level of admiration. To be that inventive, that much of a craftsman, that audacious, and that young...I mean, what Abagnale did was wrong, obviously, but even in

[click on the thumbnail to enlarge]

Hanratty's eyes, it's undeniably impressive. Despite the fact that Abagnale leads an ill-gotten life of wealth, sex, and glamour while Hanratty setttles for stuffy suits and crappy motel rooms, the two have more in common than they might want to admit. Their families are both fuzzy images in their rear view mirrors. Their existences are both wholly defined by their jobs, legitimate or otherwise. Neither really has any constant in their lives except the other, and that holds true even after this cop inevitably does chase down this criminal.

I absolutely adore Catch Me If You Can. For one, it offers the most achingly gorgeous recreation of the 1960s this side of Mad Men. Despite the film's nearly two and a half hour runtime, the pacing is so breezy and nimble that it feels closer to half that. It's difficult to fathom any actors better suited to these parts, from supporting players like Amy Adams, Martin Sheen, Christopher Walken, Nathalie Baye, and James Brolin all the way to Catch Me If You Can's two leads. The pitch-perfect casting of DiCaprio helps to ensure that Abagnale never comes across as a bad guy. DiCaprio's inherent charms go a long way, but the performance also resonates because Abagnale isn't flawless. He's a kid who's generally making every bit of it up in the moment. He's constantly on the razor's edge of being discovered, and when Abagnale says the wrong thing or starts to get in over his head, Catch Me If You Can is breathlessly suspenseful; you want this brazen liar to get away with it! It sure does help that DiCaprio's performance deftly blends in so much vulnerability with the necessary confidence. If Abagnale were as smug and smarmy as most people in his position would likely be, Catch Me If You Can would probably be insufferable. Even though Hanks' do-right FBI agent is ultimately the antagonist of the film, the actor finds a great deal of humanity in a role that's drab and dry by design. I can't help but love the father/son dynamics in this film, from Abagnale's flesh-and-blood father (Christopher Walken) taking such pride in his son's schemes -- a sort of revenge on the banks that ravaged his life -- to Hanratty's role as a surrogate parent.

Spielberg's craftsmanship ensures that the characters don't get lost in the concept. Sure, sure, Catch Me If You Can would work in lesser hands; c'mon, it's the story of a multimillionaire chameleon being chased around the country by the FBI! The difference is that Spielberg makes sure that Abagnale and Hanratty come across as people rather than cinematic constructs, and Catch Me If You Can pulls that off without being overly schmaltzy or heavy-handed about it. As entrancing as the overall premise is, so much of the film's success comes from these subtle flourishes...these small, seemingly insignificant moments...that most filmmakers would toss aside. Its sense of humor is top-shelf as well. Catch Me If You Can captures so much of what I love about Spielberg at his best, and just because it isn't E.T., Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark, or Schindler's List, this is a film that doesn't deserve to be left out of the conversation. Well-worth rediscovering on Blu-ray and very Highly Recommended.

Video

Catch Me If You Can has a subtly stylized look to it. The opening moments in the crumbling French prison are startlingly sharp and drenched in a cold teal, for instance, before cutting back to the warm, nostalgic

[click on the thumbnail to enlarge]

glow of the early '60s. One of the visual conceits of the film is the way its colors gradually grow more and more vivid, and at its peak, the palette really is a knockout. It's appreciated as ever that the filmic texture has been retained. Though Catch Me If You Can isn't the most dazzingly crisp movie I've come across, the grain is rendered with such clarity and definition that most every trace of fine detail has clearly been faithfully represented on Blu-ray. As expected, nothing in the way of wear or damage ever threatens to intrude, and the presentation has been encoded at such a high bitrate that there are rarely any issues on that front. A terrific effort all around.

The AVC encode for Catch Me If You Can spans both layers of this BD-50 disc. The presentation has been lightly letterboxed to preserve the film's theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1.

Audio

Catch Me If You Can features a six-channel, 24-bit DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, and there's nothing but praise to be had on that front as well. The sense of clarity is expectedly marvelous, particularly the rich and full-bodied reproduction of John Williams' jazz-infected score. The film's dialogue is consistently rendered cleanly and clearly throughout as well. Though this is very much a front-heavy film, there are some definite nice touches in the multichannel sound design just the same, such as the pans of off-screen aircraft across the rear speakers. No complaints.

Also included are Dolby Digital 5.1 dubs in French, Spanish, and Portuguese. Subtitles are offered in English (traditional and SDH), French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Extras

Catch Me If You Can doesn't ring in its tenth anniversary with any new extras, but plenty of bells and whistles from the initial special edition have all been carried over.

Behind the Camera (17 min.; SD): The first of Catch Me If You Can's featurettes breezes through the development and production of the film, from reworking an initially episodic script all the way to the period design. The staggering number of locations and breathlessly fast pace of the shoot are also tackled. "Behind the Camera" covers quite a lot in its fairly lean runtime and is worth setting aside the time to watch.

Cast Me If You Can (29 min.; SD): The disc also offers five sets of interviews, among them conversations with Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Jennifer Garner, Christopher Walken, Nathalie Baye, Martin Sheen, and Amy Adams. Although the actors have quite a lot of insightful comments to offer, I particularly enjoyed hearing the real-life Frank Abagnale speak
[click on the thumbnail to enlarge]
about the people behind the characters.

Frank Abagnale: Between Reality and Fiction (15 min.; SD): Across these five mini-featurettes, Abagnale returns to further delve into his 21 month crime spree, touches more on his not-always-successful attempts at blending in like a chameleon, and his colossal success in the years since as a fraud consultant.

The FBI Perspective (7 min.; SD): The FBI Technical Advisor on the set explains his role in helping to shape Catch Me If You Can's sense of authenticity.

Scoring Catch Me If You Can (5 min.; SD): John Williams speaks about his twentieth collaboration with Steven Spielberg and how its jazzy spy groove sets itself apart from the rest of his work to date.

In Closing (5 min.; SD): Frank Abagnale touches on how unusually accurate this adaptation is to the life he once lead and briefly reflects on what it all meant to him.

Photo Galleries: Last up are three expansive image galleries, divided into "Cast", "Behind the Scenes", and "Costume Gallery" headings.

The cover art for this Blu-ray release is awfully bland compared to the decade-old DVD, but it's nothing I can't live with.

The Final Word

Benefitting immensely from its pitch-perfect cast, endlessly clever script, and infectiously fun premise, Catch Me If You Can may be the single most underrated film in Steven Spielberg's œuvre. This is a movie that's well-worth re-evaluating now that it's found its way to Blu-ray. Highly Recommended. Do you concur?