In the years immediately following Titanic, Leonardo DiCaprio was one of the defining teen icons of his generation. He could have cashed in on this status with some box office friendly Rom-coms, or by joining a lucrative action franchise. Instead, he took his time and made more interesting choices. Released in 2002, Catch Me If You Can was only his third major release in five years.
A Steven Spielberg movie co-starring Tom Hanks is obviously not exactly akin to doing Chekov off-Broadway, but it is notable how selectively DiCaprio appears to have curated his early career. Danny Boyle’s The Beach was a failure, but an interesting one. He worked with Woody Allen at a time when working with Woody Allen was still a mark of prestige, in the admittedly forgotten Celebrity. By the time he was cast in Catch Me As You Can, it felt like he had removed the shackles of teen heart-throb status and emerged as an altogether richer and more interesting performer.
There’s an intriguing meta-quality to Dicaprio’s performance as serial con-artist Frank Abagnale in Catch Me If You Can, which easily stands as one of his career best. At the time he was 26 years old, playing a 16 year old who passes for somebody a decade older. It isn’t much of a stretch to see the comparisons with his own early career, and his occasionally uncomfortable relationship with being the poster on the walls of a generation of teenage girls.
The film was a critical and commercial success, but strangely DiCaprio and Spielberg have yet to work together again – although he has continued to check of the top prestige directors of his lifetime – Tarantino (x2), Scorsese (x5) Clint Eastwood, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott. He’s a bona-fide movie star these days, and it must feel all the sweeter to know that he did it on his own terms.
On this week’s episode, we discuss some of our favourite moments in Catch Me If You Can, including stealth Spielberg-isms, Tom Hanks playing the (sort-of) antagonist and a deeply weird cameo from Jennifer Garner. We also brainstorm some drinking games, check in with our listeners and pitch some sequel ideas to bring the holy trinity of Spielberg, Hanks and DiCaprio back together.
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Next week, we’ll be dipping back into the horror genre for one of the most underrated cult hits of the 00s. Until then, happy listening and remember – truth is in the eye of the beholder…