Catch Me If You Can

One of the slew of movies I waited months to write my review for.  Oh well.   Let's see what I can remember.

I believe this movie was based on a real person.

Gawd, it's been so long since I've seen the movie I can't remember if he got thrown out of the house, or if he ran away.   His mother was having an affair and so the parents split.  This was in the late-'50s, early-'60s, so that was a serious social stigma at the time.

But the point is that he ended up on the street as a teenager with no skills.  Basically, a con man who took on fake personas of various professions.  An airline pilot, a doctor, some others.   He taught himself to become a master forger.  He was incredible at manipulating women.  They showed him walking down a line of bank tellers looking for the one who was most vulnerable.  There, wearing a pilot's uniform and flashing his smile, he talked the teller into cashing his forged "paycheck" even though he didn't have and account at that bank.  At that time, pilots were held in very high regard and were routinely given special treatment.

Tom Hanks plays an FBI agent who's in the fraud division. Catching this guy becomes his personal mission for years.  He even "caught" him once, and let him out of his sight so he could get away.  Along the way, the FBI is astounded to learn just how easy it is for just anyone to get the equipment and materials needed to pull off the forgeries he does.

The di Caprio character was very clever at hiding in plain sight.  At one point, he knew that the airport was being watched.  So, rather than try to sneak in without being seen, he snuck in with a diversion that let him walk right past the FBI agents without them even glancing at him.

He was also good at conning his way into a job for which he had no training, like a doctor.  He'd show up for work and find all sorts of ways to get out of actually working on a patient.

Eventually, Hanks tracks him down.  Even in the pre-computer age, he leaves enough of a signature behind for Hanks to spot the signs.  In the end, he continues to educate the FBI in how little they actually know about counterfeiting.

On my brother's Total Movie Value Scale, Rental with Popcorn and Drinks.  Just a fun movie.  Likable characters.  Clever situations.  Demonstrates that confidence is all you need.

Editing history:

Back to movies

Please email comments, typos, errors, dead links, and any suggestions to webmaster@mightydrake.com. (Privacy statement)
Copyright © 1997-2007 Mighty Drake, Inc. All rights reserved.
Last modified: June 14, 2004

Best viewed with:	Hosted by:	Composed with:	In association  with:	Fight Spam
Opera or Mozilla or Explorer or Netscape	Site 5	FrontPage	Amazon.com	Spamcop.net &  Popfile & Greylisting