Catch Me If You Can (2002)

Inspired by a true story, and based on the tell-all book by Frank W. Abagnale and Stan Redding, this film tells the remarkable story of the youngest person to ever make it onto the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.

Frank W. Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) lives in a small suburb of New York, with his father Frank Sr. (Christopher Walken) and French-immigrant-mother Paula (Nathalie Baye). His life is relatively happy, until he returns from school one day to an ultimatum: his parents are getting a divorce and he must choose which parent he wants to live with from now on.

Rather than making a decision, he runs away, and begins to support himself with the assistance of a slew of bad cheques, until he decides to pose as an Pan-Am airline pilot.

Using the practice of 'deadheading' (a term in air travel for a pilot who flies on an aircraft in a 'spare' seat (not actually piloting the aircraft, but 'hitchhiking' in a sense), he flies all over the country, and even internationally, though never with Pan-Am itself, for fear they will clock his fraudulent ID badge.

After he has enough of flying, and all while contiuning to cash fraudulent cheques, he settles for a time in Georgia, where he poses as a paediatrician, and winds up supervising the night shift in the emergency ward of a hospital, where he meets young candy-striper Brenda Strong (Amy Adams).

The two become engaged, and Frank then begins working for Brenda's father Roger (Martin Sheen) in his law firm as an assistant prosecutor (having successfully passed the bar exam in the state of Louisiana).

All through his exploits, he is relentlessly pursued by FBI Agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), who works in the bank fraud department. There are a few near misses for Hanratty, moments where he comes so close to capturing Abagnale, but only to have him slip away yet again.

The screenplay by Jeff Nathanson, from Abagnale's book, is reasonably well written, with plenty of action, and plenty of twists and turns to keep the audience on the edge of their seat. Of course, most of these twists are taken from the book, rather than being of Nathanson's invention; Abagnale's life was filled with twists. There are a few minor alterations from the book to the script, but these are nowhere near significant enough to affect the plot of the film greatly (these are just things I happen to know, having followed Abagnale's story since hearing him speak a little over twenty years ago).

John Williams's music is fantastic (but when has John Williams ever written a bad score?), with a repeated leitmotif throughout the film that, while appearing simple in its construction, is anything but, particularly as it recurs throughout the film in different arrangements and with modified instrumentation at each occurrence.

One of the strongest elements of this film, however, is the cinematography. Janusz Kaminski has an incredible touch when it comes to his use of light and dark, and particularly the use of shadow. There are many sequences which take place in almost total darkness, which give these moments a film-noir feel, and highlight particular elements exceptionally well. I refer primarily to the scenes set in the French prison (nothing more about that here; I don't want to spoil the film for you).

Jeannine Oppewall's production design and Mary Zophres's gorgeous costumes both set the scene perfectly, and particularly ground us in the world of the 1960s when most of the film takes place.

The performances of the cast are also fantastic, particularly those of DiCaprio and Hanks, as the two opposing forces who continue to be forced together by fate. An honourable mention must also go to Christopher Walken who, as always, is brilliant in his performance, bringing so much life to his character, but doing so in the most subtly beautiful way.

Director Steven Spielberg has made a wonderful thrill-ride of a film here that, though I may be biased due to my fascination with Abagnale's exploits, is a film I always enjoy watching. If you haven't seen it yet, make sure you check it out at your earliest opportunity.

8 1/2 out of 10.

Big Eyes (2014)

The true story of artist Margaret Keane, who for most of her career, got no credit for any of her work.

Margaret (Amy Adams) leaves her first husband and moves to California with her young daughter Jane (Delaney Raye). She is an artist, who paints all her subjects - almost exclusively young girls - with oversized eyes, as she says the eyes are the windows to the soul, and she can put much more expression in the eyes when they are much bigger.

She meets Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) at a street market one day, and the two of them hit it off. He is known for painting French street scenes, and he sees real talent in her work.

Before long, the two have become very close, and when Margaret’s ex-husband threatens to fight for sole custody of Jane - calling Margaret an unfit mother - Walter proposes to her in order to give her a stable home and family environment.

The two marry in Hawaii, and it isn’t long before Margaret’s paintings start to attract attention. Desperate to be respected for his art, Walter claims it was him who is the artist behind the ‘big eyes’.

Margaret goes along with this lie for most of their married life, as she feels threatened by Walter.

Fast forward a few years: Jane (Madeleine Arthur) is older now, and Margaret continues to paint her big-eyed children, with Walter continuing to take the credit for every portrait.

Things start to slowly unravel, though, with Margaret’s longtime friend Dee-Ann (Krysten Ritter) convinced that Margaret is the true artist, and art critic John Canaday (Terence Stamp) not so sure about Walter’s credentials either.

Eventually, Margaret has had enough, and takes Walter to court, suing him in order to be recognised as the true artist.

The screenplay - by Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski - is very good, with well developed characters, and plenty of tension throughout. There are occasional humorous moments, but this film is not strictly a comedy.

Danny Elfman has composed a brilliant score for the film, a largely traditional orchestral score, mind you. It is never overpowering or poorly placed, but is always perfectly suited to the action and/or emotion on screen at the time.

The cast performances are where this film really shines, though, in particular Waltz and Adams as the married couple. The two young actors who play Jane at the different ages are also superb, but I don’t think I’ve seen either of them in anything else before or since.

Danny Huston as a journalist who follows the Keane’s career very closely is another standout performance.

Director Tim Burton brings his unique perspective and keen eye (no pun intended) to this story, and delivers a film that will delight audiences for many years to come. Check it out if you haven’t already; I might even watch it again soon myself.

8 out of 10.

The Muppets (2011)

The classic Muppets get a heartfelt reboot for a new generation.

Gary (Jason Segel) and his brother Walter (voiced by Peter Linz) live in Smalltown, USA. They have lived there all their lives, and have always done everything together. Now as adults, they still live together in the same house they grew up in. Oh, I ought to mention something here: Walter is a Muppet, though he doesn’t know that just yet.

But when they were younger, and saw The Muppet Show on television for the first time, Walter discovered what had previously been missing in his life. He became the Muppets’ biggest fan, and would give anything to visit the hallowed Muppet Studios in LA.

Gary and his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) are going to Los Angeles to celebrate their tenth anniversary. Knowing how much it means to him, they ask Walter to come with them, so that he can finally achieve his dream of seeing the Muppet Studios.

But when they get there, the building is deserted. The Muppets have completely disbanded, gone their separate ways, and the studios are about to be sold to oil baron Tex Richman (Chris Cooper), who plans to demolish the buildings and drill for oil underneath.

Walter overhears his plan, and he, Gary and Mary find Kermit the Frog and insist that he get the gang back together for one last show to try and raise enough money to be able to buy the studios themselves.

The screenplay, by Jason Segel & Nicholas Stoller, is actually quite good. There are so many beautiful moments in this film, especially for fans of the original Muppet Show, or indeed any of the classic Muppet movies.

The songs – written by Bret McKenzie, one half of comedy duo Flight of the Conchords – blend well into the score, by Christophe Beck, and move the plot forward while also deepening our understanding of the characters; this is the sole purpose of songs in a musical, and the fact that the songs in this film do this so well means that this film (as a musical) works precisely as it should.

Performances by the cast are adequate for the genre. There is nothing particularly spectacular about the acting of any individual, but the singing and dancing abilities of all involved are something to behold. This film is unashamedly a musical in the classic sense, with huge song and dance numbers similar to those you find in the Hollywood musicals of the 1940s and 1950s.

There are an enormous number of cameos in this film. I won’t go into detail of them, but will give you a list of names. So, we have Alan Arkin, Zach Galifianakis, Ken Jeong, Jim Parsons, Kristen Schaal, Sarah Silverman, Donald Glover, Emily Blunt, Whoopi Goldberg, Selena Gomez, Rico Rodriguez, Dave Grohl, Neil Patrick Harris, Judd Hirsch, John Krasinski and Mickey Rooney.

Add to that two hilarious performances from Rashida Jones as a television executive, and Jack Black as himself, and you’ve got one of the biggest casts of any musical I’ve seen for quite some time.

This film did have a sequel three years later, which I will be reviewing in due course, so stay tuned for that.

Director James Bobin has brought us a pretty good film, another entertaining musical for the whole family to enjoy. It brings a smile to my face every time I watch it, but also a tear to my eye every time I hear Kermit sing The Rainbow Connection (for the first time on screen since the death of Jim Henson all those years ago).

8 out of 10.