JONATHAN ROSS AT THE MOVIES: THRILLS OF THE CHASE.
Byline: JONATHAN ROSSCATCH ME IF YOU CAN
Cert: 12A, 140mins
BASED upon the more-or-less true exploits of one Frank Abagnale Jnr, Catch Me If You Can tells of a teenage conman who swindled millions of dollars from over-sized American corporations.
To do this, he passed himself off as an airline co-pilot, a lawyer, and a doctor - and all before his 21st birthday.
He wasn't just a persuasive con artist, he was also a naturally-gifted forger and, as played by Leonardo DiCaprio, a good-looking young stud muffin who gradually discovers he has a way with the ladies.
But at the heart of this film are the various relationships he has - with his estranged mother, his sweet but disastrously unrealistic father and an FBI agent named Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), who makes it his mission to capture the young criminal.
The film clearly makes out Frank Abagnale to be a criminal of the sort we can like and even admire - his virtually victim-less crimes allowed him to lead the sort of fantastic life that appeals to most of us when we're kids. Fast cars, travel, sex and cool clothes - what's not to like? But it's a tribute to Spielberg, his screenwriter and the cast that they allow us to enjoy the vicarious thrills of Abagnale's life and let us get caught up in the chase to bring him to justice, while also illustrating that his life was incomplete.
The emotional and even moral vacuum created by his parents suggest that rather than running towards money and excitement, he was searching for his family and his place in the world.
It's a great performance by DiCaprio - carefully shaded to let you enjoy the thrilling ride that Abagnale embarks on while also feeling genuinely sorry for him as he reaches for something he can never quite grasp. Hanks is, of course, superb - delivering a faultless performance that only seems less interesting then DiCaprio's because Hanks never fails to deliver the goods.
But the real thrill for me was to see Spielberg turning his still considerable talent to a lighter subject than his recent heavy dramas, yet choosing a story that doesn't rely on super-realistic dinosaurs to blow us away.
SEVERAL moments will stay with you just as lovely examples of cinema.
Shots such as DiCaprio bouncing from his car surrounded by a bevy of beautiful young women dressed as air hostesses - a moment which feels iconic as soon as you see it,
Or the shot in which a $100 bill blows from the bedroom that DiCaprio has just escaped from past the dazed, confused, exasperated Hanks.
Or even the relatively simple image of a bathtub filled with model planes that are being left to soak so that DiCaprio can remove the airline stickers to make his convincing fake cheques.
All of these moments ring with the sort of frothy delight that Spielberg manages to infuse into this otherwise rather slight story.
His mastery with the camera and in the editing suite is more than matched by the terrific score by John Williams - a composer whose work I normally find to be bombastic and boring.
But here he delivers music which is jazzy, breezy and somehow also suspenseful, the perfect accompaniment to the story.
My only criticism would be that due to the very nature of the story, the film begins to feel repetitive and less interesting as it rolls towards its climax, and a couple of the more unbelievable moments have clearly been invented by the film-makers rather than taken from reality, which always seems a bit of a swiz in a "true" story.
But, putting those qualms aside, Catch Me If You Can is just great. Great film-making, great acting and great fun from start to finish - the perfect movie to lift your spirits in these uncertain times.
IRREVERSIBLE
Cert: 18, 99 mins
IRREVERSIBLE is the latest European movie to stir things up at the box office.
Released uncut despite the horrific brutality in two scenes - a vicious beating and a violent rape - it will probably attract a certain audience who are just curious to see what all the fuss is about.
But although those two scenes, both of which left me sweating and uncomfortable and anxious, make this a hard film to recommend, it is without doubt one of the best I've seen this year. Alex (Monica Bellucci) is the subject of the prolonged rape and friend Marcus (Vincent Cassel) sets off in search of her attacker.
Genuinely harrowing and without doubt disturbing, the exceptional quality of the acting, the brilliance and confidence of the direction and the audacity of the film's gimmicky structure mean that this is a film that should not be missed by anyone who wants more from their movies than just mindless entertainment.
Powerful and affecting, it's not a film you should go to see without knowing what you're getting yourself into, because it is at times a gruelling and uncomfortable experience.
But the sweetness of the later scenes in the movie, which occur earlier in the actual narrative, and the skill with which it is carried out make it a must-see in my book.
Goldie and Sue's rock-and-old lifestyles
THE BANGER SISTERS
Cert: 15, 100mins
CATCH Me If You Can is the sort of movie that will appeal to just about everyone - unless you've recently cashed a dodgy cheque from a handsome young swindler. But the Banger Sisters must, by its very subject matter - not to mention the age of its stars, have a slightly older target audience.
Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon play the Banger Sisters of the title, middle-aged women whose dedication to their roles as rock-n-roll groupies in their youth earned them that particular descriptive title.
But that was then and this is now, and these once-inseparable wild young ladies have now grown up and gone their separate ways. This film looks at what happens when they get back together.
Goldie is Suzette, who has managed miraculously to stay almost as foxy as she was in her prime. She may have grown older but has steadfastly refused to grow any wiser, and still hangs out with the rock-n-roll crowd in LA.
But when she loses her job and looks in danger of losing everything else in her only briefly glimpsed life, she decides to head off to Phoenix, Arizona, to catch up with old buddy Vinnie (Sarandon), partly for nostalgia's sake but mainly to hit her for a loan. There'd be no fun in telling this story if Vinnie was pleased to see her and they had a nice time. So it's no surprise to find she is now a respectable, suburban mom who's aghast when her gaudy past rolls up uninvited.
Predictably they fight, then bond, and both come out of the experience far better off, as do all the supporting cast, including Geoffrey Rush as a writer with obsessive compulsive disorder and suicidal tendencies, both of which are cured by a hand job from Goldie.
The Banger Sisters is a predictable yet well-made story of friendship, but it is lacking in anything approaching depth, and fails to say anything fresh or interesting on the subject of friendship or ageing or life.
However, as a formula romp aimed at an older crowd, it's harmless and reasonably endearing and by no means painful to watch. So if you like the stars - both of whom deliver perfectly adequate performances - or the premise, you'll probably enjoy the film. Everyone else should give it the slip.
CAPTION(S):
CONQUEST: Frank poses as doc to seduce Brenda (Amy Adams); TWO-_FACED: Leo as pilot and doc; DOGGED: FBI man Hanks; POWER SHOWER: Alex (Bellucci) steamed up; BOND: Vinnie and Suzette
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| Title Annotation: | Features |
|---|---|
| Publication: | The Mirror (London, England) |
| Date: | Jan 31, 2003 |
| Words: | 1283 |
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