Catfish and Catch Me If You Can

While these two films carry subtle comparable themes, I find it somewhat difficult to call them similar. For starters, these are two completely different films that are concerned with providing two opposite forms of entertainment, messages, etc. 

With Catfish, we have main character, Nev, begin a relationship online with a woman, Megan, who is seemingly beautiful, young and talented. They take an interest in each other and against Megan’s knowledge, Nev travels hundreds of miles to visit her. He soon realizes Megan is not who she says she is. Hilarity ensues. With Catch Me If You Can, we follow Frank Abagnale, one of the most successful conmen to roam the world. He’s followed by F.B.I. agent Carl Hanratty, who, like Frank, really has no one else in the world, except for his work and his adversary. 

While it could be said that both Megan and Frank create alternate personas, they do it for completely different reasons. Megan’s double identity is out of complete desperation for a relationship/different lifestyle. She is still forced to take care of her two handicapped children, young daughter, etc. and creates this persona online to “get away” from the everyday troubles her family carries. In Catch Me If You Can, Frank creates different personas out of necessity. He runs away from home and is starving in the streets, so he manages to find a way into the piloting business (followed by impersonating a doctor and lawyer). Yes, he is desperately seeking to rekindle the relationship he shared with his mother and father (separately and together), but that is not the reason that he is masquerading as these businessmen. Both characters have their reasons for creating these different identities, but I feel Frank did his to survive and stay away from the feds, while Megan was just bored and lonely. 

I can also see a comparison between the relationships of Nev and Megan and Frank and Carl. While that’s understandable, I still feel it’s an invalid connection. Nev is looking for some sort of relationship (aren’t we all?), and gives into to the seemingly impossible (because it is) perfection of Megan. Megan, I feel, just wants to recreate some sort of spark in her life. Her intention at the beginning is not to begin any sort of relationship, but to just take on the persona of these 15+ individuals and see what kind of relationships can be forged. She’s seemingly happy with her family, but for some reason, she needs that extra sense of being loved, even needed. With Frank and Carl, they are both addicted to their work. Frank is constantly conning people and getting money out of it, and given his situation, he is forced to keep running. Carl is hot on Frank’s tail, working on Christmas, etc. Frank feels abandoned by his family and Carl has no family and since these two are in a constant cat and mouse game for years, there is a sort of relationship forged, not romantically or even out of loneliness, I think, but out of sheer humanistic reasons. 

Overall, I did like both films, but the comparisons are a little too subtle to be significant, in my opinion.