Some­times, I look for­ward for asso­ci­at­ing sim­ple themes to great direc­tors. Like Spiel­berg direct­ing a bank rob­bery [ Imag­ine ARR worked in the movie ‘Kad­hal’ ].. The rea­son is they’ll def­i­nitely study the sub­ject very well and we’ll be offered a real good cin­ema expe­ri­ence. Sim­i­lar thought came to orig­i­nal Frank Abag­nale and he laid the con­di­tion that his life story has to be directed with only Spiel­berg so that his inter­est­ing life is jus­ti­fied on screen. Spiel­berg, in fact, didn’t dis­ap­point Frank.

There are 2 types of frauds – one using the phys­i­cal power and the other one using men­tal skills. This white col­lar crime is tough to crack; espe­cially coun­ter­feit­ing. Remem­ber our SME Salomon in ‘Coun­ter­feit­ers’ and the novel ‘Rajara­jan kinaru’ by Sujatha.

Plot

This film pic­turises the true story of Frank Abag­nale, Jr. ( Leonardo DiCaprio — don’t read about the real life char­ac­ter till you fin­ish this movie ), a near-perfect artist who is good at cheat­ing in all posi­ble ways. All he needs is just pay­ing atten­tion to what he says. He becomes the youngest vic­tim wanted by FBI for the list of forg­ers. He is chased by agent from FBI called Carl Han­ratty ( Tom Hanks). Abag­nale escapes — but not always. You have to watch the movie to know what hap­pens to such a great artis­tic and mas­ter fraud.

View

The titling is one of the finest aspects in the film. In fact, the story board comics kind of title pre­views the hap­pen­ings. It is by far one of the more artis­tic titles. As I indi­cated that’s the power of a great direc­tor to get involved in this cat­e­gory of movies — they start their pres­ence in the titling and in the first shot [ like open­ing shot in Anjathey ]. It’s clev­erly done so that the ani­ma­tion doesn’t reveal the story but just the outline.

The movie starts at a dull pace show­ing the prob­lems with Sr Agab­nale. Once, Jr Abag­nale is left alone to lead a life, the script tra­verses at a dif­fer­ent speed. We all have the secret desire to cheat some­times [ டேப் அடிச்ச‌ 10 ரூபாயை ம‌த்த‌ நோட்டுக்கு நடுவில‌ வ‌ச்சி த‌ள்ளிடுவோமே.. அந்த‌ மாதிரி :) ]. The tech­niques Abag­nale use, are amaz­ing. Of course, it’s more of his speech mixed with actions. When­ever he does some­thing, he engages the oppo­nent with his eye contact.

The core of the film is not about the adven­tures he makes rather the prob­lem that forced him to do so. Dis­turbed brought-up and sep­a­rated fam­i­lies are used as the under­cur­rent. The FBI agent gets a call on Christ­mas from Abag­nale and the talk con­tin­ues. For the first time in life, he calls the FBI agent Tom. Tom says to Abag­nale that he has called him not to give any clue where he stays now but the actual rea­son is that he doesn’t have any­one else to talk. The film sub­tly touches about the dis­joined fam­i­lies and loneliness.

Watch for the beau­ti­ful flow of the script. It has all the best pos­si­ble inci­dents that could hap­pen in a hide and seek movie. This movie incor­po­rates ‘open sus­pense’ type of sto­ry­telling. [ where the vic­tim is iden­ti­fied and get­ting chased; like Krish­naswamy chas­ing Sena­p­a­thy in INDIAN ]. Even there’s a scene where the FBI agent hap­pens to meet Abag. The unpre­dictable nature of Abag­nale is the key in the story. He always plans a level above the FBI guys to over­come the traps.

As I men­tioned in ‘Coun­ter­feit­ers’, no knowl­edge is use­less; even his unde­tectable frauds saves him. Watch out the fab­u­lous end­ing and check what hap­pened to Abag­nale afterwards.

John Williams is the music direc­tor of this film. What a great scope can a MD get in a police-thief theme ? In fact, it’s a chal­lenge to show­case the tal­ent in star stud­ded period film and that too directed by Spiel­berg. John has done a sparkling job and it can be expe­ri­enced when you lis­ten to this theme music of this film. [ Saxa­phone vellayatu ].

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8hLI12qi1o&feature=related

Kudos to the entire crew for incor­po­rat­ing US in 1960s [ really a chal­lenge to set the period ]. Even they recre­ated MIAMI inter­na­tional air­port as in 60s.

Bril­liant screen­play — The true story of a real fake !

:)

Toto.

Related Posts B

1. North by North­west [ Brawest ride ! ].