Catch Me If You Can poster & wallpaper

Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken

Based on a true story, Frank W. Abagnale was employed as a doctor, a lawyer, and as a co-pilot for a major airline company-all before reaching his 21st birthday. A successful con artist and master of ...( read more  read more... )deception, Frank is also a brilliant forger, whose skill at check fraud has netted him millions of dollars in stolen funds--much to the chagrin of the authorities. FBI Agent Carl Hanratty has made it his prime mission to capture him and bring him to justice, however Frank is always one step ahead of Carl, baiting him to continue the chase.

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81% liked it

655,725 ratings

Critics

96% liked it

190 critics

PG-13, 2 hrs. 20 min.

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Release Date: December 25, 2002

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DVD Release Date: May 6, 2003

Stats: 25,469 reviews

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Christopher Walken Catch Me If You Can Catch Me If You Can Catch Me If You Can Leonardo DiCaprio Catch Me If You Can Catch Me If You Can Catch Me If You Can Catch Me If You Can Catch Me If You Can catch me if you can Jennifer Garner Catch me if you can Leonardo DiCaprio Leonardo as Frank Abignale Jr. Catch Me If You Can Jennifer Garner Jennifer Garner
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Flixster Reviews (25,469)

  • SirPant
    September 22, 2009
    SirPant
    I liked it but Spielberg isn?t what he used to be! It?s probably the first Leonardo DiCaprio?s film I could stomach and it?s visually very stylish.
  • JakeMN
    May 25, 2009
    JakeMN
    Well put. Story is intelligent and moves fluidly. An enjoyable movie.
  • ironclad1609
    January 10, 2009
    ironclad1609
    When I first heard of this project a year or two before it came out, I groaned. It didn't sound very exciting for a Spielberg film and DiCaprio had yet to win me over after all the Titanic hype. Boy, was I wrong. This movie is a pleasure from beginning to the end. That begins wit...( read more)h a fantastic old-fashioned opening sequence carried by John Williams great score, a story that takes its time introducing the round and interesting characters you love to follow around, yet making time jumps that cause no loss of excitement. DiCaprio turns out to be the perfect choice for this charming con artist, Hanks as FBI man without a sense of humor and Walken as proud father, being responsible for some of the most memorable scenes of this film. The whole flow and feeling of the film is so easy-going, entertaining, charming and exciting, despite of a few slow scenes, that you still wished you could follow the characters around some more when it ends. Wonderful!
  • FangsFirst
    December 12, 2008
    FangsFirst
    I don't know if it's a colouring of only personal response around me or big critical response or a mix, but I have this recollection of Catch Me If You Can being considered a pretty entertaining movie and that's all, disappointing as a Spielberg film. It seems to me that i...( read more)t was simply in a bad period for the trifecta of Spielberg, DiCaprio and Hanks, all of whom were not riding fame (though none were quite so hated as they all have been at some points). I do know Leonard Maltin says it had "no resonance," for instance, and others noted that it was not Spielberg's best. Watching (and reviewing) as many movies as I do, it's become very difficult to find the will to pointlessly compare and place in order the films of any directors, actors or genres. Certainly separating "good" and "bad" is something I can and will still do (read my Amityville II review, for instance...), but beyond that I simply don't see the point.

    Frank William Abagnale, Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) is the son of Frank Sr. (Christopher Walken) and Paula (Nathalie Baye) in New Rochelle, NY, where his father is a successful businessman, running a shop called Abagnale's, but suffering the scrutiny of the IRS. Eventually attempts at loans and the like fail and the Abagnales are forced from their home and Frank is forced from the private school he is attending. A brief experience of his father's smooth-talking leads Frank to take an offhand comment about his "substitute-like" appearance to take control of his new classroom at school. A fatherly response of chuckles leads Frank to begin to pursue this life full-time. When Frank Sr. and Paula divorce, Frank refuses to choose which to live with and runs away from home, using bad checks and eventually fake checks to make his way in life. When this becomes less satisfying, a chance observance of an airline pilot leads him to a new choice of "profession," as he begins to "deadhead" on airlines, masquerading as an airline pilot for Pan Am on flights for other airlines. His forgeries eventually catch the eye of the FBI, especially bank fraud specialist Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks, based on real-life agent Joe Shea, whose name is changed for unknown reasons). Hanratty wants nothing but to catch this mysterious forger, while Frank fantasizes about bringing his parents back together. Hanratty will not stop, though, and neither will Frank, and the two give the film its title, playing the age old game of cat and mouse.

    Does this film fail to be the identifying "best" film from Spielberg? Sure. But who cares? Why does that even matter? No group efforts of varying content can ever be completely equal in all eyes, or even most eyes. Even if this was Spielberg's best work, if someone feels some of the casting or crew is wrong, it would then fall behind other films. This kind of comparison is pointless and unnecessary. Noting that it is "not the best," is, I suppose, vaguely helpful in bringing it down to earth from the strange and mystical realm of "Spielberg Film!" but these days, enough anti-populist elitists and contrarians have taken Spielberg down enough notches that this isn't even all that necessary in itself. There is no longer the expectation that any Spielberg film will automatically be excellent or entertaining. Similarly, it's pointless to grade or downgrade a movie about real events (short of pulling a Birth of a Nation) based on its authenticity. If you don't know by now that things are going to be fictionalized, now you do. They are. That's it, let's move on from there. Take a film about real events as a re-purposing of real ideas, events and people for the use of telling the audience something, or letting them explore another life, and maybe seeing something about their own in the process--this is what Spielberg usually aims for, perhaps with a slice intended to explore his own feelings about some events (often father-related) and maybe tell something to those who have experienced similar ones.

    DiCaprio and Hanks were both in sort of transitional states, too, when this was released, in the public eye if not the critical one. DiCaprio had finally shed his "boytoy" image that so stained his career after Titanic made him the male idol of 12-14 year old girls everywhere (barring those who didn't care and the contrarians there, but certainly a very, very large number), but had not yet begun to be recognized as the good actor he really is and was. It was odd, considering how well thought of his roles in films prior to Titanic were, and the thoughts about those following. Here he turns in a performance in line with his work for Scorsese, our awareness of Frank's ignorance of these occupations prior to entering them easy to see on DiCaprio's face, but his method of working people over for information is also perfectly suave and believable, he always gives just enough to convince the audience he really is in an unfamiliar situation, and just enough to convince us no one will catch him--and even a little extra touch to make us hold our collective breath for a moment as we fear he's about to be found out (especially in a great scene with Martin Sheen as his father-in-law-to-be). His work is thankfully being re-evaluated by the masses and not just critics now, and the same is, I think, being said for Hanks as well.

    Hanks of course started his fame in the 80s in movies like Big and Joe Versus the Volcano, or even Turner and Hooch. He became a bit of a "blockbuster actor" following those lighter roles when he did work like Philadelphia, Forrest Gump and Apollo 13. He did some other light roles, but it seems like after Toy Story, he was neither easy popcorn draw nor Oscar-baiting guarantee, falling into a sort of limbo where everyone still recognized him but neither ran for his movies nor ran away from them--he was sort of a big and familiar face, a big bland one with no clear identity as comedic or dramatic actor, nor as well-rounded one. He did good work in this period like Road to Perdition and this film. Hanratty is an interesting character, and interviews with Hanks shows he saw exactly what that interest was. Hanratty is our antagonist, but he's a lawman and a good one, in both the moral and the professional sense. He takes on a sense of responsibility (Almost fatherly!) for Frank, but does not let it get in the way of his job as enforcer of the law. It's here that I've also got to mention what is an unusual turn for Spielberg. Normally Spielberg's commentary on fathers refers to absence or failure, though the idea of replacement is not new to him. Hanratty does not move completely into such a role though, becoming more an equal than a superior or authority figure.

    The secret performance of the film, though, is Walken. Walken is the unusual father for a Spielberg film, continuing to love and protect his son, with his absence being purely and squarely on the shoulders of Frank himself, who has run away. Frank Sr. has even planted the seed of the big life that Frank leads, though he never takes the fatherly step to discourage his son, instead feeling too much pride in his son and wanting too much for his son to be happy. Social engineering is not exactly the best of careers in the long run though, and certainly not a legal one (as Kevin Mitnick, though he ended up in a position similar to Abagnale after he, too, served his time). All the same, Walken's lifelong love of his wife is palpable and touching. While Spielberg and editor Michael Kahn manipulate his moment of choking up and push us to see that he did so, Walken himself surprised me by being utterly believable in his response to the pain of the divorce he was still attempting to deny to himself. It was amazing and magnetic, and a shame he was not recognized for it (okay, okay, he WAS nominated for an Oscar...), as it was the most out of character and the most "normal" and "human" I've seen him in ages--and I love "odd" actors, including Walken himself.

    So, what's the final verdict? This is a very entertaining movie. I am not going to waste anyone's time (especially my own) comparing it to any other films, except to say that anyone with an interest in films about social engineering and conmen (especially of the Confidence or Matchstick Men variety) should give this one a shot. It does a very good job with it, neither overplaying the monotonous aspects nor underplaying them, giving them that tinge of taboo excitement without boring us.
  • mrpopcorn
    September 10, 2008
    mrpopcorn
    Frank Abagnale Sr.: "Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse, wouldn't quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he churned that cream into butter and crawled out. Gentlemen, as of this moment, I am that second ...( read more)mouse."

    New Rochelle, the 1960s. High schooler Frank Abagnale Jr. idolizes his father, who's in trouble with the IRS. When his parents separate, Frank runs away to Manhattan with $25 in his checking account, vowing to regain dad's losses and get his parents back together. Just a few years later, the FBI tracks him down in France; he's extradited, tried, and jailed for passing more than $4,000,000 in bad checks. Along the way, he's posed as a Pan Am pilot, a pediatrician, and an attorney. And, from nearly the beginning of this life of crime, he's been pursued by a dour FBI agent, Carl Hanratty. What starts as cat and mouse becomes something akin to father and son.

    Tom Hanks once again shows why he is the modern day Jimmy Stewart. There isn't a part he can't play, and he brings out the best in everyone around him. Unlike the Tom Cruise/Paul Newman hook-up in "The Color of Money," I think this was the film that launched Leonardo DiCaprio into a wider range of roles.

    The delight of this show comes from its reality. The check fraud was a product of the times, when the world trusted most people to be honorable about bank checks and the movie really captures your attention and allows you to empathize and imagine living the characters vicariously. I highly recommend this movie...You will not be disappointed.

    4.5/5
  • ythelastman89
    November 20, 2009
    ythelastman89
    A great team of acting and directing. Leonardo DiCaprio gave such an honest performance as a naive, yet highly intelligent con artist. Christopher Walken also gave one of the best performances in his recent years. It's a highly touching and emotional film. The 60s setting was don...( read more)e perfectly and really gave a nice touch to the film.
  • jenzan92
    November 20, 2009
    jenzan92
    First time i saw it I thought it was great but the second time I didn't liked it that much.
  • zakaryasx
    November 19, 2009
    zakaryasx
    GREAT STORY PLUS GREAT CAST EQUALS EXCELLENT MOVIE
  • Arianeta
    November 19, 2009
    Arianeta
    THE LOOK OF LOVE a popular song. Since its first appearance in the 1967 spoof James Bond film Casino Royale, it has become synonymous with lounge and easy listening music. In the 1995 film, Dead Presidents, Isaac Hayes' version of "The Look of Love" is featured in a scene where t...( read more)he characters Kirby, Joe, and Anthony are driving along after Anthony's rocky return from the Vietnam War. The song is also featured in the 2007 film, I Think I Love My Wife, written and directed by Chris Rock. Erica Canales sings the song produced by Marcus Miller.
    The song is hummed by one of the characters in the 1993 film " Alive"
  • gchuquichanca
    November 18, 2009
    gchuquichanca
    Is there anything Tom Hanks can't do?

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Critic Reviews

January 9, 2003
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

What begins brightly gets bogged down over 140 minutes. full review

December 27, 2002
David Edelstein, Slate

After a series of dud roles, DiCaprio is back in star form. full review

December 26, 2002
Ty Burr, Boston Globe

Spielberg's breeziest work in years. full review

December 25, 2002
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

Ultimately about fathers and sons -- but it's also about the pleasures of telling a good story, with retro charm to spare. full review

December 25, 2002
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

The colorful cinematography, smart performances and brisk tempo suggest a filmmaker subordinating every other impulse to the task of manufacturing pleasure. full review

December 25, 2002
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

Fleet-footed and fun, if a mite too long. full review

December 25, 2002
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

The story is a good story, directly told, and such meaning as it has comes from the irony that the only person who completely appreciates Abagnale's accomplishments is the man trying to arrest him. full review

View more Catch Me If You Can reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments

  • nomtiviti
    July 11, 2008
    nomtiviti
    Tom Hanks and Leo haven't looked this good in a while..plus they make the pursuit more real
  • mariefuller80
    May 28, 2008
    mariefuller80
    This film got me grinning. There's a part of us that cannot help being entertained by the sight of someone getting away with something.
  • richrosie3
    January 13, 2008
    richrosie3
    LUV THIIS FILM TOO MUCH I CUD WATCH IT 100 TYMES AND NEVA GET BORED AND LEO LUKS SOO CUTE XXX
  • moshengyu
    January 2, 2007
    moshengyu
    lol
  • hairsprayfanatic
    January 1, 2007
    hairsprayfanatic
    the best 1 ever
  • HelloImBorat
    June 11, 2006
    HelloImBorat
    When I was little I heard that my dad met the guy that this movie was based of.I`m not sure if it`s true because I heard that a looong time ago but I guess it was the truth.
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  • Who connects the following movies: True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Catch Me If You Can and Suicide Kings  Answer »
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