Catch Me If You Can follows the semi-true story of Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio), a teenage con artist who stole millions of dollars over the course of six years, posing as an airplane pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer, before ultimately being arrested and imprisoned in 1969. Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film offers a hilarious, exciting glimpse into Abagnale’s misadventures, but much like the main character himself, there’s a sadness beneath its glamorous exterior.
Deep down, Frank is just a lonely prodigal. Despite his lavish lifestyle and confident demeanor, he has a void he can’t seem to fill. Frank yearns for love within his own family, only to run away from home and begin his cons as a result of his parents’ separation. He looks to money and romantic relationships for temporary fulfillment,while the crimes of his past constantly threaten to catch up with him. Frank may be running from the law, but he’s just as much running from the loneliness of his broken life and home.
Few films on this year’s list look as empathetically at the “criminal” as Catch Me If You Can. We so easily understand and identify with Frank, not as a smooth criminal mastermind, but as a scared teenager just looking for belonging and a home. Towards the end of the film, Frank escapes captivity one final time and desperately seeks refuge in his childhood home. But instead of acceptance and forgiveness, he’s met with a harsh truth. His father is dead, and his mother has remarried and had another child. Frank is a prodigal son, but with no father or home to return to.
There’s a tragic inevitability to the story, thanks in large part to the story’s structure, starting with and periodically returning to Frank’s time in captivity. “You will be caught. You will go to prison. Where did you think this was going?” asks Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) on a phone call with Frank. He may as well be asking the audience the same thing. We may have fun with Frank’s cons in the moment, but we know where this story has to go. We know the punishment that inevitably has to come for his crimes. We know the wages that must be paid for his sins. But the film’s coda does offer us some hope. Maybe, just maybe, Frank’s skills and circumstances that had been meant for evil, can actually be used for good. — Christian Jessup (A Cloudy Picture)
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