Catch Me If You Can: Difference between revisions

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[[Steven Spielberg]] film based on the life of the teenage con artist Frank Abagnale Jr. who managed to pass himself off as an airline pilot, a doctor and a lawyer while he was still too young to drink. It stars [[Leonardo DiCaprio]], [[Tom Hanks]] and [[Christopher Walken]]. [[Based on a True Story]], and the real Frank Abagnale Jr. was on hand as a consultant and was enthusiastic about its production.

 

* [[Abusive Parents]]: Frank's parents are actually very supportive of their son, but his father engages in emotional abuse in one of his last scenes. Frank has been trying to stop his criminal lifestyle for a while now, but can't go through with it until his father tell him that it's alright to do so. Instead Frank Sr. refuses and tries to use his son as a weapon against the government because they didn't support him when his business went under. Note that this did not happen in real life; see [[Very Loosely Based on a True Story]] below.

* [[Anachronic Order]]

* [[Anti-Hero]]: Frank Abagnale Jr.

* [[Artistic Title]]: See [[Pastiche]] below.

* [[Bavarian Fire Drill]]: Half of the cons.

* [[Friendly Enemy]]: Frank Abagnale Jr. and Carl Hanratty. It's done in an interesting way early on. Frank calls Carl to apologize for the fact that Carl has to deal with his crimes. He's being totally sincere, but Carl just thinks he's mocking him. It's one of the many things in the movie that show that while Frank may be a criminal mastermind, he's ultimately just a kid.

* [[Good for Bad]]: As a paper hanger, this is Frank's MO, exchanging worthless checks for money and services. The technique is most visibly used when Frank scams a model/hooker, swapping a phony check for the partial amount in cash, [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|"paying" for a full night of fulfilling a high school fantasy.]]

* [[High School Hustler]] --> [[Con Man]]: Goes from pretending to be a teacher to get back at some bullies at his school, to conning millions of dollars.

* [[How We Got Here]]

'''Carl:''' Knock knock.

'''His subordinant:''' Who's there?

* [[Pastiche]]: John Williams' credit tune as well as the accompanying animation are a [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[The Pink Panther]]''.

{{quote|'''Judge:''' There is no defense, there is no jury. It's just me. Son, what in the hell is wrong with you?}}

* [[Precision F-Strike]]: Two words: [[Crowning Moment of Funny|"knock knock."]]

* [[Sarcastic Confession]]: Frank admits to Brenda's father that he's not a doctor, a lawyer, a pilot or anything else. He interprets it as Frank being completely in love with Brenda.

** Depending on how you see it Frank was not being sarcastic at all in the situation. He either really wanted to confess his complicated situation to a father figure, he is just a kid after all and is implied to be incredibly lonely. Or he did it because he was already missing the thrill of being 'almost caught'. If this is the case, it might be more of a [[One Dialogue, Two Conversations]] kind of situation.

* [[Sexy Stewardess]]: To complete his impersonation of an airline pilot, Frank hires pretty young women to pose as flight attendants.

** Actually, he told the girls they had won an internship to train as stewardesses. He engineered the whole scheme in order to be able to enter an airport crammed with FBI agents looking for him and walk [[Right Under Their Noses]] - knowing that they would [[Distracted by the Sexy|never notice him with all those beautiful, vivacious young girls surrounding him!]]

*** And as a [[Refuge in Audacity]], knowing that the FBI agents would never suspect the conman sneaking into the airport to be '''the most obvious freaking guy in the place'''.

* [[Sherlock Scan]]: A non-visual example in Hanratty being able to discern clues of Frank's whereabouts from his telephone calls; e.g. he figures out Frank's from New York from his mention of the Yankees, and that he's a kid from his use of the alias [[Flash|Barry Allen]].

* [[The Sixties]]: The majority of the film.

* [[Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist]]: Agent Carl Hanratty.

* [[Teen Genius]]: Frank.

* [[Themed Aliases]]: Frank uses the names of comic book characters as aliases.

* [[Title Drop]]: Sort of. "You gotta catch me."

* [[Troubled but Cute]]: Well, he's played by [[Leonardo DiCaprio]], isn't he?

* [[Very Loosely Based on a True Story]]: Besides throwing in the [[Freudian Excuse]] for Frank becoming a con-artist and counterfeiter, many details from Frank Abagnale Jr.'s life were altered or added in the film. For instance, Frank is shown as an only child, when in real life, he had three other siblings. But most notably, Frank Jr. is depicted reaching out to his father in-between cons, whereas the actual Frank Jr. never saw or spoke with his father again after leaving home. This drastically changes Frank's motivation in the film: his relationship with his father is portrayed as having been so close that he can only stop his criminal lifestyle if his father wants him to; instead his father (still embittered over the lack of support he received when his business went under) [[Abusive Parents|refuses and uses his son as a weapon to get back at the government]]. In reality no such thing happened of course - Frank continued simply because he was good at it, and because it was preferable to getting a hard-working job or going to jail.

** Frank's quasi-friendship with Carl while Frank is on the run is entirely invented, although Frank and the agent who was chasing him did become friends after Frank was released from prison.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Films of the 2000s]]