History Film / CatchMeIfYouCan

* StarMakingRole: Oddly averted for AmyAdams, who despite being prominently featured as Frank's girlfriend had to wait until ''{{Enchanted}}'' some years later to become an A-lister.
** And Spielberg actually cast her in order to make that star, and said he was crushed when her career didn't take off immediately. But her career got better, so it all worked out in the end.

* AnimatedTitleSequence: and one that evokes the classic work from TheSixties of SaulBass!

** Doubling as a CrowningMomentOfFunny

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Besides throwing in the FreudianExcuse for Frank becoming a con-artist and counterfeiter, many details from Frank Abagnale Jr.'s life were altered or added in the film. For instance, Frank is shown as an only child, when in real life he had three other siblings. But most notably, he is depicted reaching out to his father in-between cons, whereas the actual Frank never saw or spoke to his father again after leaving home. This drastically changes Frank's motivation in the film: his relationship with his father is portrayed as having been so close that he can only stop his criminal lifestyle if his father wants him to; instead his father (still embittered over the lack of support he received when his business went under) [[AbusiveParents refuses and uses his son as a weapon to get back at the government]]. In reality no such thing happened of course - Frank continued simply because he was good at it, and because it was preferable to getting a hard-working job or going to jail.

** He certainly didn't escape from the plane they way they show it in the film. For one thing the septic tank on aeroplanes rarely detours into the luggage area.
** In his memoir Frank claims to have done exactly that (escaped out an aeroplane toilet). Of course, his memoir was VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory as well. In the memoir, he had flown back to the United States on a Vickers [=VC10=]; the toilet unit lifts out, so he could have escaped.

** Also they missed out the bit after his release from the appalling French jail when he spend a year in a Swedish jail. And that it was his Swedish lawyers who helped him become repatriated to the US (to jail) so he wouldn't have to serve 5 years in jail in each European country.

* ChronicVillainy: Frank eventually becomes addicted to the thrill of living like a playboy by conning money and eluding the authorities, while becoming tired from having to look over his shoulder all the time. He needs his father's support to stop, but Frank Sr. refuses for selfish reasons. Even when Frank tries to settle down his past catches up with him and he goes further into the criminal lifestyle. When Hanratty finally tracks him down in France he almost seems like a thrill-seeking junkie, and Carl has to save him from getting himself killed.

* AbusiveParents: Frank's parents are actually very supportive of their son, but his father engages in emotional abuse in one of his last scenes. Frank has been trying to stop his criminal lifestyle for a while now, but can't go through with it until his father tell him that it's alright to do so. Instead Frank Sr. refuses and tries to use his son as a weapon against the government because they didn't support him when his business went under. Note that this did not happen in real life; see VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory below.

* AntiHero: Frank Abagnale Jr.

* TheCasanova: Frank Jr.

* CompositeCharacter: Carl Hanratty, mostly based on former FBI agent Joe Shea.

* RefugeInAudacity: The ''other'' half of the cons.
** It should also be noted that something Frank learned from his father plays into this as a bit of a RunningGag. "Why do the Yankees always win?" "Because the other teams are too busy looking at the damn pinstripes."

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: When Frank first starts his cons, he's shown pressing a check in a hotel Bible; also all of the scenes set at Christmas time.

* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: Frank's in a hotel room wearing James Bond's suit, making out with a model when she gets up and negotiates him up to $1000 for the night. Frank's about to walk downstairs to cash a check ... and ends up signing a $1400 check over to her in return for the $400 difference.

* ItsForABook: More like It's For A School Newspaper Article.

* ReformedCriminal: [[spoiler:Frank, at the end of the movie.]]

** It should also be noted that something Frank learned from his father plays into this as a bit of a RunningGag. "Why do the Yankees always win?" "Because the other teams are to busy looking at the damn pinstripes."

* RunningGag: "Two little mice..."

*** Mentioned above: "Why do the Yankees always win?"
* SexyStewardess: To complete his impersonation of an airline pilot, Frank hires pretty young women to pose as flight attendants.
** Actually, he told the girls they had won an internship to train as stewardesses. He engineered the whole scheme in order to be able to enter an airport crammed with FBI agents looking for him and walk RightUnderTheirNoses - knowing that they would [[DistractedByTheSexy never notice him with all those beautiful, vivacious young girls surrounding him!]]
*** And as a RefugeInAudacity, knowing that the FBI agents would never suspect the conman sneaking into the airport to be '''the most obvious freaking guy in the place'''.

* ActorAllusion: When TomHanks' character is closing in at the engagement party, a dollar bill slips under the bedroom door and floats by him, [[ForrestGump just like a certain feather]].

Creator/StevenSpielberg film based on the life of the teenage con artist Frank Abagnale Jr. who managed to pass himself off as an airline pilot, a doctor and a lawyer while he was still too young to drink. It stars LeonardoDiCaprio, TomHanks and ChristopherWalken. BasedOnATrueStory, and the real Frank Abagnale Jr. was on hand as a consultant and was enthusiastic about its production.

* SarcasticConfession: Frank admits to Brenda's father that he's not a doctor, a lawyer, a pilot or anything else. He interprets it as Frank being completely in love with Brenda.
** Depending on how you see it Frank was not being sarcastic at all in the situation. He either really wanted to confess his complicated situation to a father figure, he is just a kid after all and is implied to be incredibly lonely. Or he did it because he was already missing the thrill of being 'almost caught'. If this is the case, it might be more of a OneDialogueTwoConversations kind of situation.

* Squick: In-Universe: When "Dr" Frank sees the young boy with a broken leg, bleeding, and moaning in pain, he is very squicked and has to hold it in until he gets the other doctors to diagnose the treatment before bolting out to throw-up.

* CompositeCharacter: Carl Hanratty, mostly based off of former FBI agent Joe Shea.

* CriminalMindGames: Played with, as Frank calls Hanratty yearly at Christmas not to taunt him, but because of crushing loneliness.

* DawsonCasting: Frank ages from 16 to his early twenties over the course of the film; he was played by a 27-year-old LeonardoDiCaprio. Justified in that the real Frank Abagnale looked older than his age, which was how he got away with many of his scams. And that's invoked in-movie; Hanratty's initial profiling of Abagnale after their first encounter includes being age 26-30.
* DistractedByTheSexy: How Frank gave the entire FBI the slip at Miami Airport. Just get in the middle of a group of (wanna-be) stewardesses, and you're invisible!

* HighSchoolHustler --> ConMan: Goes from pretending to be a teacher to get back at some bullies at his school, to conning millions of dollars.

--> '''His subordinant:''' Who's there?

* RealPersonCameo: The real Frank Abagnale plays one of the French police officers that finally capture Frank.

* Squick: In-Universe: When "Dr." Frank sees the young boy with a broken leg, bleeding, and moaning in pain, he is very squicked and has to hold it in until he gets the other doctors to realize the treatment before bolting out to throw-up.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Besides throwing in the FreudianExcuse for Frank becoming a con-artist and counterfeiter, many details from Frank Abagnale Jr.'s life were altered or added in the film. For instance, Frank is shown as an only child, when in real life, he had three other siblings. But most notably, Frank Jr. is depicted reaching out to his father in-between cons, whereas the actual Frank Jr. never saw or spoke with his father again after leaving home. This drastically changes Frank's motivation in the film: his relationship with his father is portrayed as having been so close that he can only stop his criminal lifestyle if his father wants him to; instead his father (still embittered over the lack of support he received when his business went under) [[AbusiveParents refuses and uses his son as a weapon to get back at the government]]. In reality no such thing happened of course - Frank continued simply because he was good at it, and because it was preferable to getting a hard-working job or going to jail.

** He certainly didn't escape from the plane they way they show it in the film. For one thing the septic tank on airplanes rarely detours into the luggage area.
** In his memoir Frank claims to have done exactly that (escaped out an airplane toilet). Of course his memoir might have been VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory as well. In the memoir, he had flown back to the United States on a Vickers [=VC10=], the toilet unit lifts out, so he could have escaped.