Catch Me If You Can Review:


Synopsis

Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report) directs this incredible-but-true story of the young life of Frank Abagnale Jr. Following the traumatic divorce of his beloved mother (Nathalie Baye - The Lie) and father (Christopher Walken - The Deer Hunter, Pulp Fiction) in the 1960s, at age sixteen Abagnale (Leonardo DiCaprio - Gangs Of New York, Romeo + Juliet) goes AWOL, becoming a prodigious cheque forger and impersonator of a Pan-Am pilot, a doctor and lawyer. Soon he has the FBI fraud squad on his trail, in particular dogged agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks - Saving Private Ryan, Forest Gump), who carries on a game of cat-and-mouse with Abagnale over many years.

This retro 1960s romp received Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Christopher Walken) and Best Original Score (John Williams). Martin Sheen, Amy Adams and James Brolin co-star.

Critique

After his efforts on the futuristic duo of A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and Minority Report, Director Steven Spielberg turned his attention to the lighter storytelling of Catch Me If You Can. Originally, the Hollywood legend was not scheduled to direct the film, but a sequence of unforeseen events landed the project in his lap. Taking a shine to the crowd-pleasing plot, Spielberg saw it as the perfect follow-up to his more serious offerings of late.

With Spielberg attached to the project, the film was bound to be hugely successfully - throwing in Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks to the mix effectively gave the production a licence to print money. Released at the US box office over Christmas, the film went head-to-head with another DiCaprio vehicle, Martin Scorsese's Gangs Of New York. Although flawed, the crime epic from Scorsese was a better, more thoughtful film than this DiCaprio/Hanks effort - in the end, however, Gangs Of New York's sizeable US box office revenue was only half that of Catch Me If You Can, despite its budget being twice as large.

What makes Catch Me If You Can work is that everyone attached to it knew that it was, as they themselves refer to it, a 'bon bon' project, a crowd-pleaser. This was deliberately neither a detailed character study nor a deep film. In a sense, Spielberg was taking a leaf out of Director Steven Soderbergh's book - take a momentary break from deep filmmaking to create fast-paced, glitzy entertainment in its purest non-action form. Like Soderbergh, Spielberg was more than successful in his task. After a quiet opening, which introduces us to Abagnale's history surprisingly well, we are launched straight into a rollercoaster ride as Leonardo DiCaprio smoothes over everyone in his path while stealing millions of dollars.

His varied exploits are bold, funny and much more than just watchable - the fact that the film was based on a real-life story heightens the enjoyment as the obvious problem of credibility is sidestepped. His attempts at being an airline pilot, teacher, doctor, lawyer and all-round playboy are often hysterical, with a short James Bond montage being a prime example. DiCaprio is superb in his lead role, turning the charm on and off without even breaking a sweat. The moments he has with Christopher Walken perhaps make up the most emotional and serious aspect of the film and Walken, in his minor supporting role, puts on a particularly poignant show for the audience during a teary restaurant scene.

Box office champion Tom Hanks takes up the second role in the film and adopts a distinctive hat and accent to get the job done. He is, as always, a joy to watch, interacting with DiCaprio well throughout - however, this was not really his show and he is never meant to steal the limelight away from the Abagnale character. The other cast members deliver solid support with Martin Sheen and Jennifer Garner making cameo appearances, while Amy Adams occasionally looks unrecognisable as Brenda Strong.

The period look of the film is warmly captured by Spielberg and long-time collaborator Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski - the meticulously planned costume design was also a key factor to creating the right colours and mood. Meanwhile, the director's favourite composer, John Williams, takes a break from his usual orchestral pieces to come up with some soothing jazz to match the jet-set era.

Overall, Catch Me If You Can is a wildly entertaining film from a talented cast and crew - this is one to catch and keep if you can.

8 out of 10

The Video

The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen video transfer is very faithful to the intended visuals. Since the film was shot not long before the DVD was created, there are no real marks or scratches to hinder image quality, while black levels are always strong enough. The carefully chosen 1960s colours were very important to the look of the film and are, thankfully, reproduced here with consistency.

Both Spielberg and Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski are partial to quite a lot of grain on the visuals and this is clearly evident on the film disc. The grain is never a major distraction and, if anything, actually helps to set the period look. Since the grainy appearance was intentional, the disc cannot be faulted whatsoever for this characteristic. The cinematography also lends itself to slightly softer images, meaning that sharpness is deliberately passable but not amazing. There are, however, two minor niggles - one is some extremely minor edge enhancement in places and the other is fluctuating brightness on a handful of darker shots.

Overall, however, this is a fine anamorphic transfer that captures all of Spielberg's manipulations to set the 1960s scene.

8 out of 10

Spielberg is famous for being a strong supporter of the DTS sound format, both through his films and as a financial investor. Therefore, like most of his recent DVD releases, this title features both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks. Considering the non-action genre, there is obviously less scope to impress the listener with directional trickery and bass, although the two audio streams are still pleasing nonetheless.

Both 5.1 tracks exhibit good power and bass throughout, while dialogue clarity cannot be faulted. John Williams' score is reproduced well, with his composition for the credits sequence sounding particularly excellent and well-separated. The rears are expectedly restrained slightly, although one or two sequences will really perk up the surround speakers. Scenes at airports, for example, will always have accompanying jet engine noises moving around behind the listening position, while heavy rain is superbly delivered near the start of the film.

As always, the Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 streams sound very similar, with the latter having the theoretical advantage as far as the technicals go. Those with only Dolby capabilities will not be missing out on much, although the soundstage does seem quite noticeably wider with the DTS option - especially at the rear. Overall, therefore, the two primary soundtracks on offer sound very good, while extra credit has to be given for the inclusion of DTS.

8 out of 10

The Extras

Just like the recent releases for Spielberg's Minority Report and E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, this title has been produced by Laurent Bouzereau and features a supplementary disc for extras. Bouzereau sticks closely to the format of his previous Spielberg releases, which is both a good and bad thing. On the plus side, there is an abundance of interview material and accompanying behind-the-scenes footage. On the downside, the technical aspects of making the film are neglected somewhat. There is no commentary, since Spielberg has no desire to record them, meaning that all of the bonus material is tucked away on the second DVD. All of the video extras are presented in non-anamorphic widescreen and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo.

Starting off the supplements is the 17 minute 'Catch Me If You Can: Behind The Camera' featurette (17 mins), which takes a general look at the plot lines, characters and the team behind the production. Comprising a well-balanced mix of interviews, B-roll footage and clips from the film, this serves as an excellent opener for the bonus material. Since this is anything but promotional rubbish, the modest 17 minute running length actually seems more substantial than it really is. Spielberg also talks about how he came to direct the film after completing Minority Report, while even the real-life Frank Abagnale Jr. is interviewed.

Following on from this first item are 5 'Cast Me If You Can: The Casting Of The Film' featurettes. This quintet of video segments adds a total of 29 minutes to the second disc - the clips can be selected individually from the menus, or played sequentially to cut down on remote control work. The 5 segments, in order, are for Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christoper Walken with Nathalie Baye, Martin Sheen with Amy Adams and, finally, Jennifer Garner. Each of the installments is of a very high quality, offering much insight into the casting process and how the actors felt about working with each other. DiCaprio discusses his polite call from Hanks asking permission to play Hanratty, while Spielberg talks about how he managed to momentarily tempt Martin Sheen and Jennifer Garner away from their hectic TV schedules (for The West Wing and Alias respectively) to appear in the film.

Meanwhile, the 5 minute 'Scoring Catch Me If You Can' featurette is a fairly self-explanatory item - Composer John Williams talks about how the project was such a change in style for him and how he has worked with Spielberg on so many films. It would have been great to have been shown some detailed footage of the initial concept meetings and scoring sessions, but these are sadly absent from the disc due to the preferences of Laurent Bouzereau, the afore-mentioned producer of the DVD title.

Next up are 4 'Frank Abagnale: Between Reality And Fiction' featurettes, which take a further 15 minutes to get through. In each clip, the real Abagnale recounts the true story of some of the events featured in the film. The four clips are, in order, 'Meet Frank Abagnale', 'Frank Becomes A Pilot', 'Frank's Careers' and 'Frank Gets Caught And Turns His Life Around'. The first is a general introduction to his parent's divorce (and his subsequent exit to New York), while the second discusses his first attempt at impersonating a co-pilot. The penultimate segment lists the many occupations that Abagnale has scammed his way into, while the final featurette talks about his current work in consultancy. Overall, these four clips are a nice addition to the disc and it is interesting to see where the film differed from the truth.

This bonus disc continues with a 7 minute 'The FBI Perspective' featurette, in which a former FBI operative in the field of bank fraud, who served as the film's technical consultant, talks about his assistance to the production and how the government sets were very faithfully recreated. The final featurette is entitled 'Catch Me If You Can: In Closing' - in this 5 minute piece, the cast and crew wrap things up with warm reflections on the shoot and their colleagues. The extras finish with 3 photo galleries that are respectively titled 'Cast', 'Behind The Scenes' and 'Costume Design. All three are more than extensive enough and presented as silent static galleries - the final one thoughtfully matches up the costume sketches with stills from the film to show how the design turned out.

The animated menu screens are presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, while the two discs are housed in a white plastic amaray case. Cases of this colour usually don't look great, but the design here seems to be an exception to the rule. Sadly, no booklet or chapter listing can be found inside the box itself.

Overall, fans have been treated to a pleasing set of extras that seem personal as opposed to promotional. With not a single explosion or CGI creature in sight, the prime focus of the extras has understandably been on interviews. However, some more information on the technical side of the production, such as the cinematography, editing, logistics, location searches and so forth would have been much appreciated - deleted scenes and outtakes would have been handy too if they exist.

7 out of 10

Movie 8
Video 8
Audio 8
Extras 7

OVERALL (not an average) 8

DVD Bulletin

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