Catch Me If You Can on DVD

Steven Spielberg directs what is, in many ways for him, a change of pace movie.

Catch Me If You Can is based on the early life of Frank Abagnale, Jr., a 1960’s teenager who ran away from home when his parents divorced and spent the next few years leaving a trail of deceit and fake checks in his wake.

Frank isn’t a bad kid, but he’s angry and hurt by his parents’ breakup and chooses a unique, if not moral, way of coping.

Left to his own devices, he takes skills learned at his father’s (played wonderfully by Christopher Walken) knee and applies them to help him survive. He needs to make money, so he chooses a profession he thinks will pay really well. But he doesn’t have time to qualify for the job so, ever the quick study, he passes himself off as an airline co-pilot and flies the friendly skies all over the place, learning in the process how to fake checks - and indeed an entire persona.

This lasts a while, but the FBI as personified by agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks, in another great performance, looking kind of like Dan Aykroyd in "The Blues Brothers") is on his trail for his check bouncing and when they get really close it’s time for Frank to move on to another persona.

So he becomes a doctor, talking his way into a management position in an Atlanta hospital. While there, he falls for young Candy Striper Brenda Strong (Amy Adams, in a wonderfully fresh-faced performance) and takes her to her estranged parents' (Martin Sheen and Nancy Lenehan) home to meet them and ask for her hand. Her dad is a big shot lawyer in the Louisiana state prosecutor’s office, and this leads Frank to pass the state bar exam and become a lawyer in that office.

But Hanratty’s dogged pursuit never wavers and at a party to announce Frank and Brenda’s engagement he and his men arrive and force Frank into a quick exit.

Justice eventually catches up with Frank and he’s jailed - only to have his life take up a new twist while he’s behind bars.

Catch Me If You Can may glorify a crook to a certain extent, but (much as with the GTA Vice City game) we also see clearly that there are consequences to Frank’s actions and in the end he’s a changed person with a new life.

The movie has so many marvelous moments, including a hilarious scene when Frank dickers with a prostitute (Jennifer Garner) for a night of pleasure, and we don’t want to spoil the fun. But this lightweight piece of fluff appears to have been a labor of love for most involved, and the fun they had shows on the screen.

DiCaprio is excellent as Frank Abagnale Jr., bringing freshness and energy to the screen in a role that almost seems tailor made for him. His is only one of many excellent performances, however; this may be a lightweight piece of fluff, but it’s a hugely enjoyable one, lovingly shot and crafted.

Spielberg et al have given the movie a terrific 1960’s look and feel, and John Williams contributes a nice, jazzy score that, mixed in with music from the period, helps keep the mood "pure".

The DVD is also very good, though Dreamworks has unfortunately followed the current trend and offers the movie in both anamorphic widescreen and Pan&Scan versions under separate cover. This is not good, for reasons outlined here and expounded upon often in these virtual pages.

Fortunately, we were sent the widescreen version, so we didn’t have to stretch and/or zoom it to watch it on our 16x9 aspect ratio big screen.

Overall picture quality is very good, though a tad soft in places. Colors and detail are great and the movie transmits its wonderful, sixties-style look to the digital disc very well. Audio is offered in dts and/or Dolby Digital 5.1 surround and it’s very good, with excellent use of the surround channels (jet airliners going off in many directions, for example) to really make you feel part of the action.

You also get an entire second disc of extras, and they’re really quite entertaining. There are featurettes covering just about every aspect of the film and the only flaw we can find with them (Not that we’re looking to dump on them!) is that after a while the menus go from cute and enjoyable to “aw, do we have to sit through another one?” Fortunately, they’re short.

The bottom line? Don’t just see this terrific Steven Spielberg outing, buy it and keep it - but buy the widescreen version!

Catch Me If You Can, from Dreamworks Home Entertainment
141 min. anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1, 16x9 TV compatible)/Pan&Scan (sold separately), dts and Dolby Digitat 5.1 surround
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Nathalie Baye
Produced by Steven Spielberg, Walter F. Parkes
Written by Jeff Nathanson, Directed by Steven Spielberg

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