Catch Me If You Can follows the true story of one of the most successful cheque-forgers in history, Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio), and the FBI agent tasked with hunting the forger down (Tom Hanks).

At the beginning of the movie, Catch Me If You Can was a little hard to follow. The story moved back and forth on the timeline which made the story slightly confusing. But as the movie progressed, the earlier moments began to make more sense and I'm sure that if I were to rewatch the film, those tricky first few minutes would be much clearer.

The whole story was extremely clever, and the puzzle pieces were able to fit together so well. There were multiple "ahhh" moments where I suddenly realised what had happened. I was constantly reminding myself that the story was true which only made the viewing experience more enjoyable and spectacular. Well done to the real Frank Abagnale Jr. for living an exciting and fascinating life.

Having known that this was a Steven Spielberg film, I had high expectations for Catch Me If You Can. The man has created many funny and thrilling movies throughout his career. But if I were to write an article on Spielberg's top 10 movies, Catch Me If You Can would not make the list. Although the movie had nice and thoughtful cinematography, the film wasn't as entertaining and special as some of his other movies. The movie was gripping, but in a way that documentaries are and not how his movies usually are.

I had similar expectations for the music which would be heard in the movie. When the opening credits rolled, I saw that the music was by the one and only John Williams. John Williams has written the music for some of my favourite movies including Star Wars and Jurassic Park. The music for Catch Me If You Can was appropriate, to say the least. The slow jazz swing reflected the classic cop films and the overall mood of the film. Yet being the relevant passive jazz, it wasn't the presumption I had from John Williams. I anticipated a catchy epic fanfare, like those seen in his other movies.

Although my expectations for John Williams and Steven Spielberg were high, I had even higher expectations for Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. And thankfully, those expectations were met. They each portrayed their character to perfection. Leonardo DiCaprio easily displayed the emotion needed to play a con-teen. It was extremely obvious that Tom Hanks had put much thought into how he would depict his character. Every line's delivery had been meditated on which only resulted in a better film. If you want to read more about what makes Tom Hanks such a great actor and find out about some of his other roles, check out this recent article. The other big names in the film similarly made their characters unique and not one actor subtracted from the film.

Catch Me If Can is a movie that you will need to think about and you will need to be constantly paying attention, so no dozing off in the slower sections! You need to have some knowledge of the banking system and can't expect the movie to spell out everything. Be sure to be fully awake for this movie and be prepared to do some thinking.

Catch Me If You Can is one of Steven Spielberg's less successful movies with a relevant but not world-changing score from John Williams. Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio are both unsurprisingly flawless in their roles and contribute greatly to an exceptionally inventive film about an exceptionally inventive man.

Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks

Year released: 2002

My rating: 6.5/10

Review by Tristan Carr

Last edited: 25/07/2021