The main thing that attracted me to this movie is the fact that it’s based on a true life story, just wow!. I also don’t know if it’s a bad thing but anything that has to do with conning, magic, illusion intrigues me. I just get mind blown when people do things like that because to me it’s just another way of controlling the mind and for what I know, it’s not easy to persuade people “to see or believe something that doesn’t even exist”.
About the movie
Genre: Crime/Comedy
Frank Abagnale Jr. who posed as a pilot, doctor and a lawyer without even being in the pilot school, medical school or law school because he was just 16 years and was in high school. Shortly after his dad went broke, his mom started cheating on his dad with a friend of his. One day after he came from school, he was asked to sign custody papers and indicate which parent he wanted to stay with after his parents’ divorce.
Very confused, he ran away from home and began conning banks with fake checks he was forging. And all that while, there was an FBI who was onto him. Carl Hanratty dedicated all his time to catching Frank because he met him the first time and he was able to deceive him into believing that he was also after Frank. (That’s actually when I saluted Frank)
Eventually, Carl caught Frank in France and unfortunately was taken into custody my the french. He actually used Frank’s own style to arrest him by lying to him. After the arrest, Carl tried so hard to extradite him back to the USA because he was being treated very poor in France prison.
During his return to the USA, Carl found out his dad was dead on the plane and escaped from the plane. He went back to his mom’s house only to find out his mom had moved ob with his new husband. Yes, he knew it already but seeing how fast she moved on broke his heart especially the part where he realized he had a little step sister.
After his final arrest, the FBI made him work with them on fraud cases in the bank. Frank scammed banks of about $4 million in total in the end.
Epic moments in the movie
• Frank impersonated his teacher and taught his new class for a week after they moved to a new city. I was so impressed because the confidence behind that act was really massive.
• The attention to detail on the fake Harvard medical certificate he used to apply for the job as a doctor. That scene was epic. I was even more surprised at how he was so confident during the interview.
• The fact that Frank actually wrote the bar test and passed. No, he didn’t cheat, he studied for two weeks and don’t forget he was only a high school kid.
• The fact that Frank still figured out a plan to use the same airport that was full of security agents assigned to look for him to leave the country.( He literally walked right in front of them and nobody saw him)
What I think about the movie
First of all, Frank’s personality was perfect. I loved every bit of it. Yes, he was smart but they didn’t forget that he was also a kid and he behaved as a kid most of times when he wasn’t being a con artist. The fact that Frank’s father also was a really good father and behaved just as any father should made me happy.
The fact that the FBI visited his mom and then she unknowingly gave out her son’s full identity without paying attention to the whole case also made it realistic after all, she cheated on Frank’s father which kind of shifted her attention from her son for a while.
They paid so much attention to details and it didn’t take long to realize Carl learned most of his skills from his dad because he used to spend more time with his dad. Oh and the fact that he began splurging on his father after he started getting money confirmed it.
Conclusion
As I said, I still can’t get over the fact that this is a real life story. There were some scenes that made me reprocess that what I was watching is literally a life someone lived. The fact that a 16 year old kid was able to do all of these in real life before his 19 year old birthday.
This is a movie I would watch over and over again any-day and anytime. (I’m still shocked it was released 2002). Even though there’s no suspense because you already know he’s always going to be successful at every scam, you’ll always be surprised at how he does it and you’ll never see it coming.
For me, I think this is a solid 9/10.
Images are Screenshots from the movie
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