Movie Review: Catch And Release (2006)

A miserable attempted romantic comedy, Catch And Release is full of dreadful people behaving badly.

In Boulder, Colorado, Gray (Jennifer Garner) is grieving the sudden death of her fiancé Grady. After the funeral she is unable to afford her own rent and moves in with Grady's best friends Sam (Kevin Smith) and Dennis (Sam Jaeger). Also staying at the house is Los Angeles-based cinematographer Fritz (Timothy Olyphant), another of Grady's buddies.

Before long Gray uncovers suspicious transactions from Grady's bank accounts and is shocked to discover he had an affair with Los Angeles massage therapist Maureen (Juliette Lewis) and was financially supporting her kid. Now Maureen shows up in Boulder looking for continued financial support. Meanwhile Gray starts to fall in love with Fritz, and locks horns with Grady's mother Ellen (Fiona Shaw).

Written and directed by Susannah Grant, Catch And Release traps itself in contrived situations and introduces a quite horrid set of characters. This material may have worked as a mean spirited dark comedy, but here Grant aims for traditional rom-com notes and finds only flat keys and few chuckles. Starting with the dead Grady having an affair behind the back of his fiancée, everyone scratches their base instincts with no regard for anyone else. Sam and Dennis both lust after the fiancée of their recently deceased best buddy, the narcissist Fritz finds time to have sex with the caterer at his friend's funeral, then lies to Gray about Maureen. 

But Gray decides her disgust with Fritz is actually passion in disguise, and jumps into bed with him at the earliest opportunity. Even Grady's mom Ellen is a horrible person, attempting to extract the engagement ring back from Gray, who later reciprocates by resorting to extortion. Ironically, Juliette Lewis as the saucy massage therapist Maureen emerges as the only genuine and consistent person worth caring about. The best that can be said about the others is that they deserve each other. Catch And Release should have remained undisturbed among the bottom-feeders.

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Movie Review: The Adam Project (2022)

A science fiction time travel adventure, The Adam Project offers lukewarm entertainment with the requisite thrills, humour, and tender moments.

In 2050, time travel is a reality. Air force pilot Adam Reed (Ryan Reynolds) steals a fighter jet and travels back to 2022. He reconnects with his 12-year-old self (Walker Scobell), a 6th grader frequently bullied at school. Young Adam is mouthy, and his relationship with his mother Ellie (Jennifer Garner) has been strained ever since his father Louis (Mark Ruffalo) died in a car crash. Louis was a physics researcher who developed theories enabling time travel.

The older Adam is on a personal mission to find his wife Laura Shane (Zoe Saldana), a pilot who traveled back in time to prevent the evil Maya Sorian (Catherine Keener) from taking control of the time travel industry. With Sorian and her goons in hot pursuit, both Adams travel back to 2018 where they will try to convince Louis to stop the science of time travel before it starts.

Directed by Shawn Levy with four writers collaborating on the script, The Adam Project tries to be all things to all people, and the results are unsurprisingly middling. Ryan Reynolds delivers the expected snide comments, familial poignancy underpins the action, and Catherine Keener offers up the stock villain with evil ambitions to rule the world. For the easily impressed and attention-span challenged, CGI-enabled time travel thrills and bloodless combat action show up about every eight minutes. An invade-and-destroy-the-fort climax is a tired exercise in CGI excess.

None of this makes the film bad, just frustratingly manufactured and beset by whizz-bang flakiness. In the quiet moments between mashups of Star Wars, The Terminator, and Back To The Future, themes of loss, love, care, and absenteeism do break through. The cast is sufficiently talented to thrive away from the green screens, and the human-centred relationships between Adam, his parents, and his wife border on excellent. The older Adam imparting wisdom through a heartfelt chat with his unsuspecting mom represents a fine scene. The sacrifice Adam and his wife Laura are forced to confront adds soul to their adventure, hinting at the undefined yet keenly sensed bond of human familiarity transcending time and space. 

The Adam Project is noticeably numb when it mindlessly races to the next round of digital combat, and appreciably better when it pauses to reflect.

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Movie Review: Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past (2009)

A romantic comedy with a fantasy twist, Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past borrows from Charles Dickens on the way to predictable destinations. 

In New York City, Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) is a celebrity fashion photographer, enjoying a hedonistic lifestyle, plenty of sex, and no commitments. He travels to the lavish New England estate of his deceased Uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas), where Connor's younger brother Paul (Breckin Meyer) is getting married to Sandra (Lacey Chabert). The wedding party includes doctor Jenny Perotti (Jennifer Garner), Connor's one true love from childhood and the only woman who punctures his Lothario act.

Connor does all he can to sabotage Paul's wedding, including delivering drunken tirades about the futility of love, hitting on Sandra's mother Vonda (Anne Archer), and exposing Paul's past infidelities. But then he is visited by the ghost of Uncle Wayne and the ghost of his first sexual partner Allison (Emma Stone), who guide him on a tour of his past, present and future to demonstrate the consequences of his actions.

A stellar cast and sense of flighty fun elevate Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past beyond the mundane. Co-writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore deliver a polished script maximizing concept enjoyment and packed with sharp humour, and the stars do the rest, diving into their characters with committed playfulness. The scenes with a ditzy Emma Stone whizzing Connor around his past on a time-traveling bed are a particular delight.

As usual with rom-coms, the peripherals help make or break the experience, and here director Mark Waters has plenty to work with. Wealthy and fun-loving Uncle Wayne was the perfectly enticing bad example on Connor's early life, setting him on a path of selfish gratification. The thorny dynamic between married-couple-to-be Paul and Sandra is a source of steady laughs, as are Sandra's parents "Sarge" (Robert Forster) and the cougar Vonda.

The necessary moments of pathos also register, the brotherly bond between Connor and Paul deployed to good effect, and the eternal but often denied passion between Connor and Jenny an underpinning for both their lives.

Despite the welcome streak of quality, typical genre pitfalls are also on full display. There is never any doubt about the outcome, and Connor's transformation abruptly arrives just in time for the requisite wrapping up of all loose ends. Obvious go-to devices include the destroyed wedding cake, drunken revelations, desperate bridesmaids, and doofus best men.

Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past does enough to justify a breezy trip through time, but still arrives at all the familiar conclusions.



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Movie Review: Peppermint (2018)

A routine vigilante thriller, Peppermint features shallow characterizations, a high body count and stratospheric levels of implausibility.

At the Los Angeles Christmas fairgrounds, Riley North (Jennifer Garner) witnesses the murder of her husband Chris and daughter Carly by goons working for drug lord Garcia (Juan Pablo Raba). A traumatized Riley identifies the shooters, but Garcia's intimidation extends into the justice system and the perpetrators walk free. Detectives Beltran (John Ortiz) and Carmichael (John Gallagher Jr.) are helpless, and Riley disappears.

After five years of weapons and martial arts training, Riley returns to Los Angeles and lives in a van parked on skid row. She initiates a murderous clean-up campaign targeting Garcia's organization and corrupt justice officials. FBI agent Lisa Inman (Annie Ilonzeh) joins Beltran and Carmichael in trying to stop the rampage, but Riley becomes a vigilante star on social media.

An elemental Death Wish knock-off, Peppermint does not bother with too much context or depth. Director Pierre Morel gets down to the business of killing from the opening scene, and within a couple of days Riley North proceeds to wipe out dozens of goons, gang leaders and assorted hangers-on, not to mention corrupt judges and lawyers. A few buildings are reduced to rubble, and one admittedly ramshackle neighbourhood destroyed.

Despite some suspect editing the action scenes are generally well executed, and Morel provides a glossy sheen as the bullets fly and blood flows. Chad St. John's script is humourless and witless, with most of the dialogue at cheap television show levels, but character evolution is the most glaring void. Riley transforms from anti-violence mom to a well-oiled killing machine, but the five intervening years are entirely skipped over. 

With a physically committed performance Jennifer Garner does her best to fill in the blanks, but Riley's sheer blood lust is beyond the reach of easy comprehension. The secondary characters are unimaginative stock creations, matched by an underpowered supporting cast. Peppermint is the flavour of ice cream young Carly orders just before she is killed, and most of it just melts into an unseemly puddle.



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Movie Review: Draft Day (2014)

A sports business drama, Draft Day goes behind the scenes on the day NFL teams choose the next wave of talent.

It's the morning of the 2014 National Football League draft. Sonny Weaver Jr. (Kevin Costner) is the General Manager of the Cleveland Browns, and has recently lost his father, a legendary and beloved former head coach. Sonny is also grappling with the news his girlfriend Ali Parker (Jennifer Garner), the team's salary cap expert, is unexpectedly pregnant.

With the Browns picking seventh and expected to select either linebacker Vontae Mack (Chadwick Boseman) or running back Ray Jennings (Arian Foster), Sonny accepts a trade to move up to the number one pick, giving up many future prospects in return. The Browns are now in a position to draft star college quarterback Bo Callahan (Josh Pence), which pleases team owner Anthony Molina (Frank Langella). But Sonny has misgivings, and asks his scouts to delve deep into Callahan's background. With his every move questioned by prima donna coach Vince Penn (Denis Leary), Sonny's day will feature many more twists and turns as he strives to reshape the team.

Directed by Ivan Reitman, Draft Day is a slick and glitzy look at the management side of professional sports. Undoubtedly constructed to portray NFL corporate life as a dynamic thrill ride, Sonny's day is probably an over-exaggeration of any sort of reality. But the film packs enough content to maintain strong interest for fans of sports business while completely sidestepping the NFL's hot button issues related to on-field concussions and off-field player perpetrated violence.

The plot piles on the hot potatoes on Sonny's plate. Not only did his father just die, but Sonny is also reviled for having had the temerity to fire his own dad a few years earlier. Mom Barb (Ellen Burstyn) shows up at the worst possible moment on draft day, with an urn full of ashes to dispose of. Owner Molina is threatening to fire Sonny unless he delivers a good headline, while coach Penn is strutting around undermining his own General Manager. Even Sonny's assistant is a first-day-on-the-job kid caught in the maelstrom.

And of course Ali is inconveniently pregnant, Sonny is preoccupied instead of thrilled, and their entire affair is the office's most open secret. At least no one brings up the 17 year age difference between Costner and Garner, nor Sonny's quite advanced age to tackle the rigours of first time fatherhood.

Through it all he has to engineer high stakes trades as the clock ticks on. For a drama mostly built on over-the-phone negotiations with other GMs, Reitman does a fine job maintaining plenty of tense energy, deploying fluid split screens to present both sides of every conversation as Sonny weaves a path towards his objectives.

Costner's performance is self contained and stoic, and Garner also adopts a rather cold stance in a male-dominated milieu. The rest of the characters populating the desks, offices and working the phones are barely defined beyond pithy summaries. The young college players at the centre of attention are also stock representations, Callahan the cocky quarterback, Mack the family man, and Jennings full of promise but with a shadow of scandal dimming his potential. 

Draft Day is all about wheeling and dealing under pressure, and picks about as many winners as losers. 

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Movie Review: Butter (2011)

A political satire, Butter delivers some laughs in a compact package.

In rural Johnson County, Iowa, Bob Pickler (Ty Burrell) is the reigning champion of the annual butter sculpting competition, a title he has won for 15 consecutive years. His ambitious wife Laura (Jennifer Garner) takes enormous pride in this achievement. When Bob meekly agrees to step aside and allow others a chance to win, Laura is furious, and decides to enter the competition herself.

Ten-year-old black child Destiny (Yara Shahidi) is finally placed in a stable home with loving foster parents Ethan (Rob Corddry) and Jill Emmet (Alicia Silverstone). She discovers a hidden talent for butter sculpting, and enters the competition as Laura's only serious competition. Meanwhile, a despondent Bob enjoys the services of stripper/hooker Brooke (Olivia Wilde), but they are interrupted before Brooke is paid. She sets out to get what is rightfully hers, resulting in an unusual relationship with Laura and Bob's daughter Kaitlin (Ashley Greene).

A satire directed by Jim Field Smith, Butter may or may not be a reimagining of the 2008 Democratic Party primaries, where an upstart black candidate rose from nowhere to challenge a high-strung entitled woman. Butter also may or may not be more broadly about the obsessive battle between haves and haves-nots for supremacy over something that does not matter very much.

Either way, this is an entertaining little film, clocking in at 90 minutes, poking away at the cultural divide in the United States. Laura and Bob represent tradition and the elite, and their art work recreates moments of religion and culture (The Last Supper, the Kennedy assassination) that matter to the old definition of the middle class. Destiny, now nurtured by a liberal white family, is much more instinctive and visceral, her sculptures speaking to the black experience and the suffering of the disadvantaged.

The irony of Laura, who has everything, feeling threatened to her core by Destiny, who has nothing, is an apt reflection of the politics of fear.

The script by Jason Micallef throws enough wacky moments and characters at the screen to diffuse any singular focus, and the sub-story involving Brooke (a sex partner for the straying husband of the candidate sounds familiar) and Kaitlin is irreverent enough to just about work.

Jennifer Garner (who co-produced) plays the highly strung Laura with full naked ambition and no irony whatsoever, a woman blinded by a love of power, willing to do anything to retain her status, and utterly oblivious to her privilege. Olivia Wilde powers through the film like a buzzsaw, the fantasy smart and resourceful prostitute more than willing to jump over the tracks to be acknowledged for her services to society. Hugh Jackman has a small role as Laura's old flame, a man she summarily uses to keep her campaign on track.

By pretending that a small town butter sculpting competition actually matters, Butter never takes itself seriously. At the end of the day, it all melts away for another year.

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Movie Review: The Kingdom (2007)

An anti-terrorism investigative thriller, The Kingdom is inspired by real events and features solid action scenes, but treats its subject matter with condescending simplicity.

In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a coordinated terrorist attack featuring shooters, a suicide bomber and a large car bomb hits an American compound and causes massive casualties. Suspicions immediately fall on the cell commanded by Abu Hamza, an Al-Qaeda follower. The Saudi government initially refuses to grant entry to foreign investigators, but in Washington DC, FBI Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) pulls the necessary levers to permit his team a brief visit.

Fleury arrives in Riyadh along with agents Mayes (Jennifer Garner), Leavitt (Jason Bateman) and Sykes (Chris Cooper). They are greeted by Saudi State Police Colonel Al-Ghazi (Ashraf Bahrom) and Sergeant Haytham (Ali Suliman), who had attempted to thwart the attack. Al-Ghazi is initially unhelpful and keeps the FBI team on a short leash. But gradually Fleury builds up a level of trust, and the investigators start to make progress collecting evidence and identifying the terrorists.

Inspired by the 1996 and 2003 Khobar and Riyadh bombings, The Kingdom tackles the scourge of extremist Islamic terrorism targeting American interests. Directed by Peter Berg and written by Matthew Michael Carnahan, the film is slick, fast-paced and vivid. But for a story that purports to peel away the complexities of Saudi Arabia's social history and its unintended role in incubating and exporting extremism, the narrative quickly defaults to jingoistic American cheerleading.

Compared to much more thoughtful post-September 11, 2001 films like Rendition and Syriana, The Kingdom is lightweight. The FBI team can do no wrong, except for Al-Ghazi the local Saudis are incompetent obstructionists, and all it takes to track down a terrorist mastermind is a bit of on-site investigative work and a handful of agents storming a heavily-fortified neighbourhood.

But when it comes to delivering action scenes, Berg is in his element. The opening terrorist attack, a carnage-on-the-highway showdown and the final climactic battle are well-handled, and despite some jerky camera movement and obsessive editing, the chaotic grit of close quarters urban warfare jumps off the screen.

The investigative elements are orderly but settle in below television CSI-levels of linear simplicity. Sykes is the only one to think of diving into the blast hole to retrieve the identifying marks of the terrorists' car. Mayes extracts marble shrapnel fragments from victims' bodies, and these end-up being key clues to identifying the bombers. And Fleury looks up and immediately spots the building where the bad guys congregated to film the attack.

The cast is strong, but features some odd choices. Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman are not the first names to jump out as candidates for the roles of hardened FBI agents. Foxx and Cooper are more in their element, but overall Carnahan's script seems to go out of its way to highlight the boorish and insensitive behaviours that tend to give Americans abroad a bad name. Jeremy Piven is the harried on-the-ground State Department official, and back in Washington DC Richard Jenkins and Danny Huston are the suits embroiled in battles of careerism.

The Kingdom is a modestly useful addition to the influx of post-9/11 films exploring the complexities of the Middle East, but is more interested in brawn than brains.

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Movie Review: Love, Simon (2018)

A high school romantic comedy and drama, Love, Simon finds sensitive humour and humanity in  the story of a young gay man struggling with coming out.

In a suburb of Atlanta, Simon Spier (Nick Robinson) is a well-adjusted teenager from a middle class family in his final year of high school. He gets along well with his hip parents Emily and Jack (Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel) and his younger sister Nora (Talitha Bateman). Simon's one big secret is that he is gay, and worried about the consequences, he is unsure when and how to come out, or whether he even should.

His best friend of many years is Leah (Katherine Langford), and his other good friends include soccer player Nick (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.), who is interested in Abby (Alexandra Shipp), the new girl at school. Martin (Logan Miller) is an obnoxious classmate lusting after Abby.

Under the alias Jacques, Simon anonymously enters into an email exchange with someone using the pseudonym Blue, an unknown schoolmate who reveals himself to be gay. The correspondence blossoms into a digital romance, with Simon ever more desperate to find out who Blue is. But Martin stumbles onto the emails, and attempts to blackmail Simon into helping him connect with Abby.

Directed by Greg Berlanti, Love, Simon succeeds at what appeared almost impossible: breathe a burst of refreshing new life into two long moribund sub-genres, the high school comedy and the rom-com. And Love, Simon achieves its success by embracing smart kids, delving into the world of true friendships, and steering well clear of bro-level stupid gags and body fluid jokes. Rather than being celebrated, the annoying classmates here are the annoying classmates, destined to make life miserable for others but mostly for themselves.

The core of the film deals with the strain of announcing sexual identity, and despite falling in love with the elusive Blue, Simon finds it exceptionally difficult to gather up the necessary courage. His coming out predicament lands in the middle of a loving family and an exceptionally close-knit group of friends. And if a guy like Simon finds the idea of revealing he is gay terrifying, society still has a long way to go to welcome diversity in all its forms.

The humour is nuanced and stems from the situations. Simon and his friends are involved in putting on a school play production of Cabaret, and their drama teacher Ms. Albright (Natasha Rothwell) has to tolerate the talent limitations at her disposal. Vice Principal Mr. Worth  (Tony Hale) patrols the hallways clumsily trying to bridge the generational gap. And Simon's sister Nora is into a cooking phase, subjecting the family to daily culinary experiments.

And when it's time for honest and serious conversations the film delivers, a stirring and difficult scene between Simon and his mother hitting exactly the right tone of parental love.

The romance elements are unique and timely. Simon falling in love with an emailer affords Berlanti the opportunity to playfully bring to life imagined scenarios, as various guys at school occupy Simon's mind as potential Blue candidates. The film wraps an intriguing mystery into its mix, challenging the audience to play along and spot who may be the gay lover-to-be from among Simon's acquaintances. The impossibility of the task is exactly the film's point: we are all different, and all the same.

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Movie Review: Danny Collins (2015)

A dramatic comedy with some music, Danny Collins is about better-late-than-never priority adjustments. The film succeeds by staying within itself despite falling into some melodramatic traps.

Danny Collins (Al Pacino) is a singer in the twilight of his career, milking his hit songs from decades past in front of an antiquated audience. He is frequently high on coke, and superficially enjoys the trappings of fame including a huge mansion and trophy girlfriend Sophie (Katarina Čas). When his long-time manager and friend Frank (Christopher Plummer) unearths a letter to Danny written by John Lennon in the early 1970s but never delivered, the performer is shaken out of his stupor.

Recognizing he may have wasted away a career, Danny abandons his latest tour, ditches Sophie, cleans up, and relocates to a modest Hilton in New Jersey to reach out to his long estranged son Tom (Bobby Cannavale). He finds Tom, his wife Samantha (Jennifer Garner) and daughter Hope living a modest middle class life. Danny also meets and try to woo the hotel's resistant manager Mary (Annette Bening). Although at first Tom wants nothing to do with his father, Hope's ADHD and a family sickness provide the now persistent Danny an opportunity to reset some relationships.

Written and directed by Dan Fogelman, Danny Collins is a low-key character study brought to life by an irrepressible Al Pacino performance. Despite his late career crisis, Collins is written to stay true to his rascal tendencies, allowing Pacino to ride the wave of a consummate entertainer intent on making some changes but never straying far from who he is. Even as he sets up in a nondescript New Jersey suburb, Danny enjoys his fame and fortune, is not hesitant to flaunt his wealth and influence, and is happy to dole out advice and pursue Mary with minimal subtlety.

The scenes with Danny getting to know Tom and his family benefit most from this focus on realistic human behaviour, with both father, son and daughter-in-law reacting with laudable maturity within the field of awkwardness. Danny is too old to worry about his own feelings, so he just niggles his way through the initial barriers to find the openings where he can make some amends to a life of neglect. Tom and Samantha are pragmatic enough to appreciate effort and good fortune when it smiles on them.

The film's weaknesses reside with the eye rolling introduction of a serious disease, layered on top of young Hope's ADHD. It almost makes Danny's restitution mission too easy, fast forwarding the familial bonding opportunities to tidily fit into the under two hours of running time. Danny's romantic pursuit of Mary fares better, her wariness of the celebrity at her modest hotel providing a sturdy defence against his frontal advances.

Danny Collins may lack boldness and any sort of cutting edge, but it's a well-rounded effort delivered with a veteran's sure touch.

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Movie Review: 13 Going On 30 (2004)

A fantasy romantic comedy, 13 Going On 30 is a compact gem celebrating life's simple lessons in a an energetic package.

It's 1987, and Jenna Rink (Christa B. Allen) is about to celebrate her 13th birthday. Her one genuine friend is geeky and slightly chubby next door neighbour and classmate Matt (Sean Marquette). Jenna desperately wants to be considered cool and envies the "Six Chicks" group of shallow but popular girls led by Lucy "Tom-Tom" Wyman. When her birthday party unravels into an unmitigated disaster, Jenna yearns to be "30, flirty and thriving". Thanks to a dose of "magic wishing dust", Jenna (Jennifer Garner) wakes up the next day as the 30 year old editor of the influential Poise women's magazine, living the glamorous Manhattan life.

As she adjusts to the sudden transformation from 13 to 30, Jenna discovers that Lucy (Judy Greer) is now her assistant, her live-in boyfriend is a dumb but hunky hockey player, and Poise is in a lot of trouble, consistently out-scooped by the rival Sparkle magazine. Jenna seeks out and reconnects with the 30 year old Matt (Mark Ruffalo), now a photographer engaged to be married to Wendy (Lynn Collins). But Matt doesn't want much to do with Jenna, since she grew up to be a shallow and deceitful narcissist. Jenna has to find a way to put her life right and reclaim her true self.

Directed by Gary Winick, 13 Going On 30 gets almost everything right. The film never takes itself too seriously, and contains just enough edge along with the humour and romance to entertain teens, their parents and everyone who yearns for romance as an outcome of a life lived better.

Plenty of breezy lessons are wrapped into the film, including be careful what you wish for, beware opportunistic friendships, cherish the value of family, and don't be in a hurry to grow up. But the messaging is conveyed with a light touch and allowed to emerge on the side of Jenna's sudden and frequently funny transition from adolescent to adult.

The early scenes quickly capture the trauma of high school for 13 year olds, a jungle of  insecurity, cliques and an oppressive need to fit in. Winick is just as good when the film moves into Jenna's adulthood, and her young teenager's perspective on the chic world of a glitzy magazine editor injects excellent gumption.

Jennifer Garner approaches the role of Jenna Rink with a winning, all-in attitude, and her wide-eyed, self-deprecating enthusiasm is infectious. Mark Ruffalo does not need to do much except convey mellow wistfulness while looking dreamy. Judy Greer provides acerbic support as the snooty Lucy, who grew up from her Tom-Tom years exactly as would have been predicted. Andy Serkis adds another gloss of understated humour as the senior editor attempting to maintain his cool under increasing pressure.

13 Going On 30 reverberates with a soundtrack of 1980s hits, and Winick incorporates an impromptu recreation of Michael Jackson's legendary Thriller video into Jenna's adventures. Her fantasy is as cheeky as a zombie dance, and almost as much fun.

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Movie Review: Catch Me If You Can (2002)

A light-hearted chase drama inspired by real events, Catch Me If You Can is treat for the eyes and the mind. The story of master con artist and cheque fraudster Frank Abagnale Jr. is a breezy tale told with a bouncy spirit.

In New York of the early 1960s, 16 year old Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) grows up idolizing his father Frank Sr. (Christopher Walken), an independently-minded businessman who constantly runs into money problems. When Frank Sr.'s marriage to passionate Frenchwoman Paula (Nathalie Baye) falls apart due to his financial difficulties and her infidelity, Frank Jr.'s life is shattered and he goes on the run. Having inherited his father's instincts for charming people into parting with money, Frank survives by cashing fraudulent cheques at various banks.

Frank Abagnale Sr.: Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse, wouldn't quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he churned that cream into butter and crawled out. Gentlemen, as of this moment, I am that second mouse.

Wanting more, driven by a desire to recover all that his Dad lost, and appreciating the power of a slick uniform, Frank pretends to be a Pan Am co-pilot. He starts forging payroll cheques, and is soon flying around the country, amassing a fortune in cash, and leaving a long trail of victimized banks in his wake. His exploits grab the attention of FBI bank fraud agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), who starts a years-long pursuit. But the FBI man is always half a step behind the con artist, and Frank has more tricks up his sleeve and new personas to disappear into.

Directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the book by the same name co-written by Abagnale, Catch Me If You Can is an engaging, remarkably entertaining film. Approximately 80 percent based on reality (according to Abagnale himself), the film focuses on one kid on the run possessing extraordinary self-confidence and one dour FBI agent determined to catch up to him. By avoiding all buddy movie and action cliches that could have crept into the narrative, Spielberg and his screenwriter Jeff Nathanson produce an original, funny and character-driven film, with the momentum generated by intellect and the human condition.

Frank Sr.: You know why the Yankees always win, Frank?
Frank Jr.: 'Cause they have Mickey Mantle?
Frank Sr.: No, it's 'cause the other teams can't stop staring at those damn pinstripes.

It's takes a perpetrator and a victim to run a successful con, and the film delights in showing the various ways Frank is able to either get what he wants or escape from sticky situations using confidence and the razzle dazzle of image and props. He's both the struggling mouse and the Yankees in pinstripes. Whether it's a Pan Am pilot's outfit, a doctor's white coat, a shiny pendant, or a wallet full of junk, he distracts and sweet talks in equal measure. He succeeds to the tune of millions in cash, even conniving to get a high class call girl to pay him for a night of pleasure.

Compared to real events the film overplays the two key relationships in Frank's life, and that's quite excusable because Spielberg knows what makes a good screen drama. Frank is provided with regular touch points with his father, whose life is on an endless downward spiral that only he fails to see. Frank Jr.'s motivation is to set all that went wrong in his dad's life, but for Frank Sr. the struggle is the life, and he takes joy not in escaping the bucket, but watching his son churn for another day.

The in-pursuit relationship between Frank and Carl is also enriched for cinematic purposes (and to provide Tom Hanks with more to do). The film features Christmas time phone calls between the two men to affirm the emptiness and broken homes they share, and to build a bond that comes to fruition in the final act.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks are both excellent, smoothly building complex characters continuously longing for something just out of reach. Christopher Walken gives Frank Sr. the doomed air of a smart man determined to fight a system that merciless crushes him into nothingness, but that is no reason for him to stop the fight.  The rich cast also features small but telling roles for Martin Sheen, James Brolin, Amy Adams and Jennifer Garner.

Catch Me If You Can features a stunning throwback opening credit sequence by Kuntzel+Deygas that recalls the best of Saul Bass. A whimsical, curious John Williams progressive jazz music score enhances the 1960s vibe.

Cool, creative and captivating, Catch Me If You Can is a cat and mouse game at its finest.

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Movie Review: Juno (2007)

A teenage pregnancy comedy-drama, Juno is bright, breezy and refreshingly honest. Understated directing by Jason Reitman, a radiant Ellen Page performance and a witty script by Diablo Cody elevate the film to classic status.

In suburban Minnesota, 16 year old high school student Juno MacGuff (Page) finds herself pregnant after having sex once with her best friend and classmate Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). Juno considers having an abortion but cannot go though with it, and with the help of best girlfriend Leah (Olivia Thirlby), she reveals her condition to her father Mac (J.K. Simmons) and stepmother Bren (Allison Janney).

Juno connects with childless yuppie couple Vanessa and Mark Loring (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman), and arranges for a private adoption. Vanessa is desperate to be a mom, but Juno senses that Mark, a former rock musician now reduced to composing television commercial jingles, is not nearly as enthusiastic. As the pregnancy progresses Juno has to face scorn at her school, and her friendship with Bleeker is strained to the breaking point. She finds herself spending more time with Mark, and starts to question what it takes for two people to stick together and raise a family.

Juno is a small, lighthearted film that treats its subject matter with refreshing candor. The characters and events come across as simply real, free of theatrics, and a plain yet wacky matter-of-factness permeates through the economical 96 minutes of running time. This is a film about teenage pregnancy that contains no lectures, recriminations, episodes of tears or adult/child shouting matches. Instead, Juno is filled with the soul of grounded individuals carrying on and dealing with the stresses and issues at hand as best as they know how, and climbing the hill of the next challenge along the way.

There are moments of tension, with Juno and stepmom Bren having a hot/cold relationship and the realities of the pregnancy proving too difficult for Juno and Bleeker to deal with as a couple. But the film never descends into banal territory, and instead always latches on to the fundamental humanness of the characters, where humour, some cynicism and plenty of emotional survival instincts reside.

Diablo Cody wrote the original script with plenty of inspiration from her real life. She captures high school teen talk at its most fluent, Juno and Leah adept at rattling off the euphemisms reflective of their time, all conveyed with the attitude of 16 year olds caught somewhere between fierce individuality and the typical need to find acceptance. Juno has moments of childlike brattiness mixed in with lucid realizations of what the challenges of the adult world are all about, and the film shines in portraying a girl literally evolving into a woman, physically and emotionally.

Jason Reitman directs with a tactful yet distinctive touch, allowing the story and his main character to dominate, while adding nimble stylistic touches. Filmed in and around Vancouver and perfectly capturing middle class suburbia, the changing seasons represent the three trimester of Juno's pregnancy, the high school varsity runners pant year round as everything else changes, and the adults carry as much baggage as the high schoolers do, only it's less visible but much heavier. Meanwhile the distinctive music of singer-songwriter Kimya Dawson provides a backdrop of laid back lo-fi puzzlement, reflective of the typically warped high school ecosystem thrown further askew by Juno's pregnancy.

Ellen Page lights up the screen as Juno. The Canadian actress was 20 at the time of filming and convincingly plays at 16, bringing to the role edginess, humour and the over-excited self-confidence of a teenager. Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman are delicious as the couple who seem to have it all, but with a palpable current of tension running from their tight smiles and into every room of their too-perfect home.

Juno is the perfect little film, a jewel of self-aware quirkiness.

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The Movies Of Jennifer Garner

All movies starring Jennifer Garner and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Pearl Harbor (2001)

Catch Me If You Can (2002)

13 Going On 30 (2004)

Catch And Release (2006)

The Kingdom (2007)

Juno (2007)

Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past (2009)

Valentine's Day (2010)

Butter (2011)

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

Draft Day (2014)

Men, Women, And Children (2014)

Danny Collins (2015)

Love, Simon (2018)

Peppermint (2018)

The Adam Project (2022)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.