Catch Me If You Can 4K 2002

Watching Catch Me If You Can prompted me to do some additional research. I had to go online to figure out how check cashing works—this system was not used in our CIS countries, but it turned out to be central to the plot. It turned out that the entire Frank Abagnale scam, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, was based on the vulnerabilities of American banks in the 1960s.
It's interesting to watch DiCaprio play characters associated with money and deception in different dimensions. If in Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street he is a cynical schemer whose debauchery becomes a hymn to greed, I must admit that I found the film itself stifling, despite all its energy. Here, Spielberg shows a completely different story. It is a profound drama about vulnerability, where the plot centers not on a swindler, but on a talented teenager whose world collapsed on the day his parents divorced. His scams are a desperate attempt to regain his lost status and family, to escape his grief by taking on grandiose roles.

While watching, I caught myself thinking, “I would like to be in his shoes for just one day — to live life as brightly, with the same confidence to take risks.” But the film wisely shows the boundaries: where the game ends and crime begins, there is an invisible but important line.

What can we learn from Frank within reason?

Confidence and self-presentation — he took on any role with his back straight and without a shadow of a doubt.

Detailed preparation — thorough study of the manners and habits of his target.

Stress resistance — life as a series of improvisations.

The most brilliant thing about the film is Frank's relationship with agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks). It's not just “cop and thief.” Carl becomes the stable, reliable “second father” that he lost. Their Christmas phone calls are a painful ritual, the only thread connecting Frank to reality. The ending is not defeat, but salvation.

It's the perfect combination of thriller, comedy, and a touching story about how easy it is to break a child and how difficult it is to fix their life afterwards.