Catch Me If You Can

Genius is a word we use carefully here in JM, because otherwise, anybody who is not average would be labled "Genius" and that's not the right way to use it, but Frank Abegnale was a true genius a guy who managed to make millions of dollars, pose as a Panam pilot, a district attorney, and even a pediatrist and go around the world, before he was nineteen years old and Spielberg made a movie based on the events of his life and that's "Catch me If You can).

Frank Abagnale (Leonardo Dicaprio) is a teenager in New Jersey, living an upper middle class life, his Father (Christopher Walken) is quite successful in his business, and his mother (Nathalie Baye) is French, whome his father met while he was serving in WW2, the couple can't resist some troubles they have, and they end up divorcing, the super sensitive, super intelligent Frank doesn't take it well, and using some wisdom provided by his father, he manages to fool everybody, from Airport authorities, to respectable hospitals, to the US attorney office, using innovative forgery techniques, and a superiour self confidence, and to make so much money doing forgery stuff wherever he could.

On the other side is agent Handratty (Tom Hanks) the chief of check fraud branch in the FBI local office, and he is the one hunting him, Handratty is a good guy, paternal, intelligent and understanding, soon enough a strange bound forms between him and Frank, and this bound is the wire that connects the movie together, at the end Frank is a troubled child in a broken home, he needs to prove himself to the world around him, and to some persons in particular, and Handratty understands that, but will it be enough to catch him ?

One of my personal favourites, it's a brilliant movie, much praise goes to DiCaprio's performance, as Abagnale, this guy didn't replace DeNiro in Scorsese's world for nothing, there are other great preformances, Hanks as always is very good, but i think the best of them all is Walken as Frank's father, this performance should have got him several awards, he got the nominations but he was more then good.

A swingy score by John Williams and the traditional brilliant cinematography by Janusz Kaminski complete the atmosphre of this film, and compared to many movies set in the sixties this one is so superiour, because it does not fall into the trap of nostalgia but focuses on the characters and their relationships, Jennifer Gardner plays a role which is hard to forget of a prostitute who ends up paying her client for her services, this movie was good when it came out, it stands the test of time, it's not a masterpiece like the other three or four Spielberg made, but it's close to that status, brilliant people make the most difficult things look effortless, and this movie is an exemple of that.