Catch Me If You Can

Catch Me If You Can is a 2002 American biographical crime comedy-drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks with Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Nathalie Baye, Amy Adams, and James Brolin in supporting roles. The screenplay by Jeff Nathanson is based on the semi-autobiographical book of the same name by Frank Abagnale Jr., who claims that prior to his 19th birthday, he successfully performed cons worth millions of dollars by posing as a Pan American World Airways pilot, a Georgia doctor, and a Louisiana parish prosecutor. The truth of his story is heavily disputed.

A movie version of Abagnale's book of the same name was contemplated soon after it was published in 1980 but began in earnest in 1997 when Spielberg's DreamWorks bought the film rights. David Fincher, Gore Verbinski, Lasse Hallström, Miloš Forman, and Cameron Crowe were all considered to direct the film before Spielberg decided to direct it himself. Filming took place from February to May 2002.

The film opened on December 25, 2002, to positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success, grossing $352 million worldwide. At the 75th Academy Awards, Christopher Walken and John Williams were nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Score, respectively.

Plot
In 1969, FBI agent Carl Hanratty arrives in Marseille, France, to pick up a prisoner named Frank Abagnale Jr., who has fallen ill due to the prison's poor conditions.

Six years ago, Frank lived in New Rochelle, New York, with his father, Frank Sr., and his French mother, Paula. During his youth, he witnesses his father's many techniques for conning people, but Frank Sr.'s tax problems with the IRS eventually force the family to move from their house and into a small apartment.

One day, Frank discovers his mother is having an affair with Jack Barnes, his father's friend from the New Rochelle Rotary Club. When his parents divorce, Frank runs away. Needing money, he turns to confidence scams to survive, his cons progressively growing bolder. He poses as a Pan Am pilot named Frank Taylor and forges the airline's payroll checks. Soon, his forgeries are worth millions of dollars.

News of the crimes reaches the FBI and Carl begins tracking Frank. He finds him at a motel, but Frank tricks Carl into believing he is a Secret Service agent named Barry Allen. He escapes before Carl realizes he was fooled.

Frank then begins to impersonate a doctor. As Dr. Frank Conners, he falls in love with Brenda, a naive young hospital nurse, and asks her attorney father for both her hand in marriage and help with arrangements to take the Louisiana State Bar exam, which Frank passes. Carl tracks Frank to his and Brenda's engagement party, but Frank escapes through a bedroom window, telling Brenda to meet him at Miami International Airport two days later.

At the airport, Frank spots Brenda, but also plainclothed agents. He realizes she has given him up, then drives away. Reassuming his pilot identity, he stages a recruiting drive for stewardesses at a local college. Surrounded by eight women as stewardesses, he conceals himself from Carl and the other agents at the airport and escapes on a flight to Madrid.

Later, in 1969, Carl tracks down Frank in his mother's hometown of Montrichard, France, and convinces him to surrender to the French police. Frank is immediately arrested and taken into French custody, but Carl assures him that he will be extradited back to the U.S.

Picking back up once more in 1969, Carl takes Frank on a flight back to the U.S. As they approach, Carl informs Frank that his father, Frank Sr., has died. Grief-stricken, Frank escapes from the plane and reaches the house of his mother, who now has a daughter with Barnes. Frank surrenders to Carl and is sentenced to 12 years in a maximum-security prison.

Carl occasionally visits Frank. During one visit, he shows him a fraudulent check from a case he is working on. Frank immediately deduces that the bank teller was involved in the fraud. Impressed, Carl convinces the FBI to allow him to serve the remainder of his sentence working for the FBI Financial Crimes Unit. Frank agrees but soon grows restless doing the tedious office work.

One weekend, Frank prepares to impersonate a pilot again and is intercepted by Carl, who is willing to let him continue with his con, assuring him that no one is chasing him and that it's his choice. Frank returns to work and discusses another fraud case with Carl, who asks him how he cheated on the Louisiana State Bar exam. Frank tells him he studied and passed it. Carl smiles and asks Frank if he's telling the truth, but Frank doesn't answer, instead giving Carl input on a new fraud case.

A postscript says that Frank lived for 26 years in the Midwestern United States with his wife, with whom he had three sons, remained friends with Carl, and made a living as a leading expert on bank fraud and forgery.

Cast

 * Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Abagnale Jr., a teenager who turned into a con artist and later the FBI's bank fraud consultant in the Financial Crimes Unit
 * Tom Hanks as Carl Hanratty, an FBI agent who is based on Joseph Shea
 * Christopher Walken as Frank Abagnale Sr., the father of Frank Abagnale
 * Martin Sheen as Roger Strong, an attorney
 * Nathalie Baye as Paula Abagnale, the French mother of Frank
 * Amy Adams as Brenda Strong, a young hospital worker ("candy striper") and the daughter of Roger
 * James Brolin as Jack Barnes, the friend of Frank Abagnale Sr. who had an affair with Paula
 * Nancy Lenehan as Carol Strong, the mother of Brenda
 * Candice Azzara as Darcy
 * Malachi Throne as Abe Penner, a check printer who helps Carl trace Frank to Montrichard
 * Alfred Dennis as Ira Penner, the brother of Abe and a check printer who helps Carl trace Frank to Montrichard
 * Amy Acker as Miggy Acker, one of the eight women that Frank recruits to be his stewardesses
 * Guy Thauvette as Warden Garren, the warden of the unnamed Marseille prison
 * Maggie Mellin as the unnamed French teacher who Frank impersonates
 * Thomas Kopache as Principal Evans, the principal of Frank's school who busts him for impersonating a substitute teacher
 * James Morrison as a pilot
 * Robert Symonds as Mr. Rosen
 * Dave Hager as a judge
 * Jasmine Jessica Anthony as the unnamed daughter of Paula and Jack

Brian Howe, Frank John Hughes and Chris Ellis portray FBI agents Earl Amdursky, Tom Fox, and Special Agent Witkins respectively. John Finn portrays FBI Assistant Director Marsh. Jennifer Garner cameos as a call girl named Cheryl Ann. Ellen Pompeo, Elizabeth Banks, and Kaitlin Doubleday have supporting roles as Marci, Lucy, and Joanna. The real Frank Abagnale appears in a cameo as a French police officer arresting his onscreen counterpart.

Development
Frank Abagnale sold the film rights to his autobiography in 1980. According to Abagnale, producers Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin purchased the film rights after seeing him on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Two years later, they sold the rights to Columbia Pictures, who in turn sold the rights to producer Hall Bartlett. Bartlett and business partner Michael J. Lasky hired Steven Kunes to write the screenplay, but Bartlett died before the project found a distributor. The rights were then sold to Hollywood Pictures, a division of Disney, and when the project went into turnaround, the rights were again sold to Bungalow 78 Productions, a division of TriStar Pictures. From there, the project was presented to Steven Spielberg at DreamWorks Pictures. According to Daily Variety, executive producer Michel Shane purchased the film rights in 1990 for Paramount Pictures. By December 1997, Barry Kemp purchased the film rights from Shane, bringing the project to DreamWorks, with Jeff Nathanson writing the script. By April 2000, David Fincher was attached to direct over the course of a few months, but dropped out in favor of Panic Room. In July 2000, Leonardo DiCaprio had entered discussions to star, with Gore Verbinski to direct. Spielberg signed on as producer, and filming was set to begin in March 2001.

Casting
Verbinski cast James Gandolfini as Carl Hanratty, Ed Harris as Frank Abagnale Sr. and Chloë Sevigny as Brenda Strong. Verbinski dropped out because of DiCaprio's commitment on Gangs of New York. Lasse Hallström was in negotiations to direct by May 2001, but dropped out in July 2001. At this stage, Harris and Sevigny left the film, but Gandolfini was still attached. Spielberg, co-founder of DreamWorks, offered the job of director to Miloš Forman, and considered hiring Cameron Crowe. During this negotiation period, Spielberg began to consider directing the film himself, eventually dropping projects such as Big Fish and Memoirs of a Geisha. Spielberg officially committed to directing in August 2001. That same month, Tom Hanks was cast to replace Gandolfini, who had exited due to scheduling conflicts with The Sopranos.

The search for Sevigny's replacement as Brenda Strong lasted months, but Amy Adams was eventually cast. Spielberg "loved" her tape, and producer Walter F. Parkes commented that she was "as fresh and honest as anyone we'd seen", which was an important element in the role. Christopher Walken was cast as Frank Abagnale Sr. following Parkes's suggestion. Martin Sheen played Roger Strong, as he had "intimidating presence". Spielberg wanted a French actress to portray Paula Abagnale to stay true to the facts. He asked for the help of Brian De Palma, who was living in Paris, and he did tests with several actresses such as Nathalie Baye. Spielberg had seen Jennifer Garner on Alias and offered her a small role in the film.

Filming
Filming was scheduled to begin in January 2002, but was pushed to February 7 in Los Angeles, California. Locations included Burbank, Downey, New York City, LA/Ontario International Airport (which doubled for Miami International Airport), Quebec City and Montreal. The film was shot in 147 locations in only 52 days. DiCaprio reflected, "Scenes that we thought would take three days took an afternoon." Filming ran from April 25–30 on Park Avenue, just outside the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Production moved to Orange, New Jersey and returned to Brooklyn for bank and courthouse scenes. Shooting also took place at the TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Quebec City was chosen for its atmosphere. Place Royale, within Old Quebec, stands in for Montrichard, and the church in the background of the arrest scene is Notre-Dame-des-Victoires. Filming ended on May 12 in Montreal.

Music
The original score was composed and conducted by John Williams. The film's soundtrack was released on December 10, 2002, by DreamWorks Records. All music composed and conducted by John Williams unless otherwise stated.

Historical accuracy
Abagnale had little involvement with the film, but believed Spielberg was the only filmmaker who "could do this film justice", despite various changes from purportedly real events. In November 2001, Abagnale said: I am not a consultant on the film. I've never met or spoken to Steven Spielberg and I have not read the script. I prefer not to. I understand that they now portray my father in a better light, as he really was. Steven Spielberg has told the screenplay writer (Jeff Nathanson) that he wants complete accuracy in the relationships and actual scams that I perpetrated. I hope in the end the movie will be entertaining, exciting, funny and bring home an important message about family, childhood and divorce. Abagnale says he never saw his father again after he ran away from home, but Spielberg "wanted to continue to have that connection where Frank kept trying to please his father; by making him proud of him; by seeing him in the uniform, the Pan-American uniform."

In a 2017 presentation for "Talks at Google", Abagnale commented on the accuracy of the film: I've only seen the movie twice. So when the media asked me what I thought about the movie, and what was right and what was wrong, I said: "First of all I have two brothers and a sister; he portrayed me as an only child. In real life, my mother never remarried; there's a scene in the movie where she's remarried, and has a little girl. That didn't really happen. In real life I never saw my father after I ran away; in the movie they keep having him come back to Christopher Walken in the film. That didn't really happen. ... I escaped off the aircraft through the kitchen galley where they bring the food and stuff onto the plane; and there they had me escape through the toilet." I thought he stayed very close to the story, but pretty much all of that. He was very concerned about being accurate, first of all because it was the first time he made a movie about a real person living. Second the Bureau had an information officer on the set for all the shooting of the entire film to make sure that what he said about the FBI ... was accurate. ... And then of course, as he later said, "I really got most of my information from those three retired agents" ... So I thought he did a good job of staying very, very accurate at the movie. In addition, the FBI agent who Abagnale alleges tracked and later worked with him was Joseph Shea; Abagnale has said that because Shea did not want his name used in the film, the character was renamed Carl and given the surname Hanratty, based on the football player Terry Hanratty.

Despite his claim that Spielberg "stayed very close to the story", records show Abagnale was in the Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Fort Ann, New York, between the ages of 17 and 20 (July 26, 1965, to December 24, 1968, inmate #25367), and before that, he was in the United States Navy (December 1964 to February 1965). Six weeks after his release from Great Meadow, on February 14, 1969, he was rearrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was jailed locally, and in June 1969, he was convicted of stealing from a local family and small business in Baton Rouge. Abagnale did dress as a Pan American Airlines pilot for a brief period in the fall of 1970. He was arrested in Cobb County, Georgia, on November 2, 1970. Federal court records associated with his conviction show he cashed only 10 personal checks with a Pan American Airlines logo, totaling less than $1,500. The facts behind many of Abagnale's exaggerated claims, and their inclusion or omission from the film, were the subject of renewed media reporting in 2021. In 1978, several journalists debunked his claim that he passed the Louisiana bar and worked for Attorney General Jack P. F. Gremillion. Journalist Ira Perry was unable to find any evidence that Abagnale worked with the FBI; according to one retired FBI Special Agent in Charge, Abagnale was caught trying to pass fraudulent checks in 1978, several years after he claimed that he began working with the FBI.

Themes
Catch Me if You Can deals with themes of broken homes and troubled childhoods. Spielberg's parents divorced when he was a teenager, similar to Frank Abagnale's situation. In the film, Carl Hanratty is also divorced from his wife, who lives with their daughter in Chicago. "Some of my films have had to do with broken homes and people on the run from their sad pasts," Spielberg stated. "But there are those strands that got me to say: you know, there's something also about me that I can say through the telling of this kind of lighthearted story."Spielberg also wanted to create a film that sympathized with a crook. He explained, "Frank was a 21st-century genius working within the innocence of the mid '60s, when people were more trusting than they are now. I don't think this is the kind of movie where somebody could say, 'I have a career plan.'"

Release
DreamWorks was careful to market the film as "inspired by a true story" to avoid controversy similar to that surrounding A Beautiful Mind (2001) and The Hurricane (1999), both of which deviated from history. The premiere took place at Westwood, Los Angeles, California, on December 18, 2002.

Game Show Network has aired the 1977 episode of the television game show To Tell the Truth that featured Frank Abagnale. Segments were shown on December 29, 2002, and January 1, 2003, as promotion.

Home media
Catch Me If You Can was released on DVD and VHS on May 6, 2003 by DreamWorks Home Entertainment. The DVD was released as a 2-Disc Special Edition and included special features including never-before-seen footage by director Steven Spielberg as well as interviews. As of December 2003, the video sold 3,20 million copies earning a profit of over 56.3 million dollars. For the film's 10th Anniversary A Blu-ray version was released on December 4, 2012.

Box office
Catch Me If You Can was released on December 25, 2002, earning slightly above $30 million in 3,225 theaters during its opening weekend, in second place behind The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The film went on to gross $164.6 million in North America and $187.5 million in foreign countries, with a worldwide total of $352.1 million. The film was a financial success, recouping the $52 million budget seven times over. Catch Me If You Can was the eleventh highest-grossing film of 2002; Minority Report, also a Spielberg film, was the tenth highest.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, Catch Me If You Can has a rating of 96% based on 203 reviews, with an average rating of 7.90/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "With help from a strong performance by Leonardo DiCaprio as real-life wunderkind con artist Frank Abagnale, Steven Spielberg crafts a film that's stylish, breezily entertaining, and surprisingly sweet." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 75 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert heavily praised DiCaprio's performance, and concluded "This is not a major Spielberg film, although it is an effortlessly watchable one." Mick LaSalle said it was "not Spielberg's best movie, but one of his smoothest and maybe his friendliest. The colorful cinematography, smart performances and brisk tempo suggest a filmmaker subordinating every other impulse to the task of manufacturing pleasure." Stephen Hunter believed DiCaprio shows "the range and ease and cleverness that Martin Scorsese so underutilized in Gangs of New York".

James Berardinelli observed, "Catch Me if You Can never takes itself or its subjects too seriously, and contains more genuinely funny material than about 90% of the so-called 'comedies' found in multiplexes these days." Berardinelli praised John Williams's film score, which he felt was "more intimate and jazzy than his usual material, evoking (intentionally) Henry Mancini". Peter Travers was one of few who gave the film a negative review; he considered the film to be "bogged down over 140 minutes. A film that took off like a hare on speed ends like a winded tortoise."

Accolades
At the 75th Academy Awards, Christopher Walken and John Williams were nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Score. Walken won the same category at the 56th British Academy Film Awards, while Williams, costume designer Mary Zophres and screenwriter Jeff Nathanson received nominations. DiCaprio was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. Williams also earned a Grammy Award nomination. Elements of the film were later parodied in The Simpsons episode "Catch 'Em If You Can".

Musical adaptation
A musical adaptation of the same name premiered at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, Washington in July 2009, starring Aaron Tveit and Norbert Leo Butz. It began previews on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theatre on March 11, 2011, and officially opened April 10, 2011. The musical was nominated for four Tony Awards, including Best Musical.