Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Catch Me If You Can directed by Steven Spielberg documents the life of Frank Abagnale Jr. as a teenage con artist. By forging checks as a pilot, doctor, and lawyer, Abagnale collects millions of dollars until he is finally caught by Detective Carl Hanratty, played by Tom Hanks. Catch Me If You Can is a critically acclaimed blockbuster of 2002 that follows the Hollywood 3-act structure.
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| Catch Me If You Can |
Catch Me If You Can does not conform to a traditional linear plot, rather jumping back and forth between parts of Frank Abagnale’s life, but can be broken up into 3 acts. The first 28 minutes shows his turbulent childhood with loss of their family’s money and his parent’s divorce, as well as his incarceration years later. The first plot point is Abagnale at seventeen running away from home, without knowing where he will live or make money. The next 73 minutes explains Abagnale’s journey posing as a pilot, doctor, and lawyer, with the stakes raising at every venture. He creates counterfeit checks for thousands of dollars and fake degrees to further his “career.” After every new job, Hanratty gets a little closer to Abagnale, until the second plot point when Abagnale must leave the country to barely escape the detective at his own engagement party. The next 39 minutes lead up to the climax when Dectective Hanratty finally tracks down Abagnale in France and must arrest him. The remaining 28 minutes shows the resolution of Abagnale’s fraud scheme with a twelve-year jail sentence and his release requiring him to assist Hanratty busting other swindlers. Catch Me If You Can obeys Hollywood’s 3-act structure following Frank Abagnale’s rise and fall as a “successful” bank fraud, and ultimately concluding with a happy ending of Abagnale starting a family, becoming an affluent businessman, and remaining friends with Carl Hanratty.
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