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CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (PG-13)

Plot Summary: Based on a true story, a teenage boy becomes the biggest con artist in American history.

Reason for the Rating: Some sexual content and brief language.

If CATCH ME IF YOU CAN weren’t based on a true story, I would have walked away from it saying, “There’s no way that could happen!  A sixteen-year-old boy passing as an airline pilot, a doctor, and an Assistant District Attorney, creating bogus checks and passing them effortlessly?  There’s just no way.”  But, it did happen.

Frank Abagnale, Jr. (Leonardo DeCaprio) is sixteen when he begins his con career.  His father (Christopher Walken), who Frank Jr. greatly admires, has shown him the benefits of lying and charming the ladies, but Frank Jr. takes it to a whole new level.  When his parents divorce, Frank runs away.  He begins by simply writing bad checks from his own checking account, but when this scam catches up to him, he learns how to create bogus checks from his “new employer,” Pan Am Airlines.  Frank doesn’t just pass these bad checks; he actually acquires a pilot’s uniform and flies around the world as a co-pilot.

It doesn’t take long for the FBI to discover his check writing scam and send Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) to apprehend him.  Amazingly, Frank manages to stay one step ahead of the FBI for 3 years, creating numerous identities and vocations along the way.

The movie tells the story without glamorizing the life Frank Abagnale led.  While it shows him living the high life, it also does well in portraying how lonely and tiresome this life is for Frank.  At one point he calls Carl Hanratty, asking him to stop the chase, so Frank can stop the con and live a normal life.  It’s a life that hurts all of Frank’s relationships, and keeps him from true intimacy with anyone.  All in all, it’s just an amazing story of how a web of lies and deceit can quickly ruin a man’s life.

FamilyFans.com Recommends: Leave the young ones at home, but take the older kids to see this movie.

After the Show…If members of your family choose to view this movie, use these questions to spark discussion about it afterward:

---What decisions could Frank have made early on that would have changed the outcome of his life for the better?

---Who has been a major influence on your life?  How has that person (or persons) influenced you and your decisions?

---Sometimes running away from problems seems like the easiest thing to do.  Do you think Frank Abagnale would say it made his life easier?  Why or why not?

Jill Wuellner

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