A cat-and-mouse caper

Fresh from portraying paranoid futures, Spielberg presents his most upbeat and personal work to date. His cat-and-mouse caper, Catch Me If You Can, is best seen during the holidays, not simply due to its recurring Christmas theme but also because it is a collaboration full of cheer, optimism, and inevitable reunions.

The last time Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks banded together, critical acclaim as well as shrapnel exploded from numerous quarters. This time, however, one Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio provides the firepower as Frank W. Abagnale Jr., the artful dodger of the film.

"Do you know why the Yankees always win?" DiCaprio’s true-to-life Abagnale reveals to Hanks’ fictional FBI agent, Carl Hanratty. "It’s because of the pinstripes they wear."

This sensibility reflects the ruse of an old orthopedic-shoe advertisement in which a grungy outlaw outruns a flat-footed officer of the law. After arresting one’s attention, the ad reveals that the one wearing the good doctor’s shoes is, in fact, the cop who catches the crook in the end.

Spielberg uses the same sleight-of-hand to pull the wool over audiences’ eyes. So skillfully does he employ the art of misdirection that a con man’s con man would be stumped to guess where the story is going. In 140 minutes, the director condenses the five-year exploits of the youngest person to enter the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted and turns the tale into an ode to fractured families and precocious youth.

Just like in his recent films, Spielberg steers the plot past the most convenient stop and parks in a different driveway. With this attempt, however, the director achieves the desired effect.

Watching Abagnale, audiences root for the charming fugitive who gets away posing as a teacher, pilot, doctor, and lawyer even before he is legally allowed to drink alcohol. Watching Hanratty, audiences laugh at the luck of the man in black. What they do not realize is that one cannot do without the other for every Tom has its Jerry.

Unlike Les Miserables’ Javert, Catch Me’s Hanratty is not the long arm of the law, just its accountant. Nevertheless, Hanratty is the moral center to which Abagnale’s world gravitates.

One would think that the opening credit sequence says it all, but the ever-elusive quarry is not the only engine that drives the story.

As Frank Abagnale Sr., Christopher Walken elicits sympathy and scorn in equal measure with his Willy Loman brand of parenting.

For some of the fairer sex (and those of similar persuasion), the film’s charm may lie with Leo. For others, the movie’s main appeal lies in its depiction of childhood dreams. With references to comic books such as The Flash, TV shows such as Perry Mason, and action films such as Goldfinger, the movie illustrates the powerful influence that popular media hold over impressionable young minds. Not only does DiCaprio’s Abagnale strike an 007 pose, he also makes Alias’ Jennifer Garner (playing cover girl-cum-call girl, Cheryl Ann) an offer she can’t refuse. Pretending to be Barry Allen, Frank Jr. pulls a fast one over the Feds and runs to fake another day. The film offers a buffet of fantasies rather than ala-carte daydreams of being a superhero or spy.

While Frank Jr. lives his fabricated life, Janusz Kaminski’s cinematography paints the shots with sparkling hues like a glass of champagne. Whenever reality creeps back into the boy’s world, the director of photography filters grainy, harsh light through windows.

Evoking the stylish ’60s music of Henry Mancini, John Williams’ score complements shades of mood between amusing and tense, within the context of progressive jazz.

Though based on Frank Jr.’s autobiography, Jeff Nathanson’s screenplay is, in its essence, a fairy tale. It is a patchwork of truthful events sewn together by a wish and prayer. It is a wish for understanding and a sense of belonging; it is a prayer for forgiveness and redemption. Its ending may smack of fairy-tale moralizing, but it effectively taps into the deep human desire for all to live happily ever after – after they’ve had their bit of fun, of course.

In an unintentional allusion to Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs, an FBI agent seeks assistance from a felon behind Plexiglas. In Catch Me If You can, it is interesting to note that while some governments spend precious taxpayers’ money hunting down criminals, others hire crooks.