Wednesday, October 17, 2012

HOT: Catch Me If You Can

In my opinion, Tom Hanks is the greatest actor in Hollywood. One of the things I admire so much about him is that even when he is not technically the star of the film, he still shines. This is really shown well in That Thing You Do, but you can definitely see it here as well.

Hanks plays Carl Hanratty in Catch Me If You Can - a definite top character in the film, but definitely not the star. No, that belongs to Leonardo DiCaprio, who stars as Frank Abagnale, Jr. a 16-year old kid who leads Hanratty on a cross-country chase as he cons millions of dollars from  people and companies by forging checks.

Abagnale, Jr. is the son of Frank Abagnale (Christopher Walken), who gets denied a small business loan due to some issues with the IRS and eventually divorces his wife, Paula (Nathalie Baye), who is having an affair. When the two decide to separate, Abagnale, Jr. takes off and the fun begins.

He begins to pose as a Pan Am pilot, and then starts to forge fake Pan Am checks to the tune of 2.8 million dollars.

This of course begins to alert the FBI and Hanratty starts tracking Abagnale, Jr. - so much so that it becomes the only thing he wants to do.

Over the course of three years Abagnale, Jr. becomes a pilot, a doctor and a lawyer by forging documents and he conned millions of dollars along the way.

Still just a kid himself, Abagnale, Jr. tries to do most of this for the approval of his father - and soon tries to build a relationship with Hanratty with phone calls near Christmas time.

The film itself is based on a true story - and Abagnale, Jr. was one of the top forgers in the United States. He now works with the FBI in tracking down forgers.

DiCaprio and Hanks were absolutely amazing in their roles - and together they were even better. DiCaprio really carried the film as Abagnale, Jr. but Hanks was downright amazing playing second fiddle.

Grade:

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