Monday January 6, 2003 michigandaily.com/arts mae@michigandaily.com ARTS 5A Spielberg crafts smart, fun 'Catch' By Ryan Lewis Daily Arts Writer "Catch Me if You Can" unites the talents of three of the most dominat- ing personalities in Hollywood to create one of the most enjoyable films of the year. Starring a baby- faced Leonardo DiCaprio and the untouchable Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg skillfully spins an intrigu- ing yarn based on the true-life story of Frank William Abagnale Jr. With a story so unbelievable, it could only have come from reality. It's hard to believe it has taken this long to put it on screen. From the moment the opening credits roll in a vintage 1960s style, the film embraces the period with retro titles and fabulous designs. All the pretty Like last year's "Ocean's 11," "Catch" embraces its scenery and Jr. repeated flash to the smallest detail. father asked DiCaprio plays young Frank, a 15- Having ca year-old New Yorker who loves his lars in nearl parents and takes after his unfortu- FBI, led b, nate father. When Frank Sr.'s (Hanks), beg (Christopher Walken) business falls particularly on hard times because of his scams Carl face ea and cutbacks, the family life begins kid leaves C to topple. His mother takes up adul- a mockery tery and his father begins to show would-be ca him the haphazard ropes of wooing and mouse g and smooth talking (usually failing Taking c dismally). One day, Frank returns reinvents h home only to discover that he must decide who to live with because his parents are divorcing. Deeply scarred by the news, he escapes to a CATCH ME IF world he creates for the YOU CAN sake of his father. Checkbook in hand, At Showcase, Quality Frank forges checks but 16 and Madstone needs the pseudo-iden- Dreamworks tity of a copilot to cash them. Right away it is _ abundantly clear that Junior has his charism Out mind o Charlie Kaufman Courtesy of Dreamworks y faces in the world would still not make up for "A.I." ly asserts that if only his d him to stop, he would. ashed over 1.5 million dol- ly perfect counterfeits, the y agent Carl Hanratty gins to follow the trail. In a amusing scene, Frank and ch other but the underrated arl flabbergasted and made of. Once he eludes his pture the first time, the cat game begins. cover in Atlanta, Frank himself as an ER doctor with flawless creden- tials. He meets a hap- less candy-striper and flies off to become an assistant district attor- ney in Louisiana, all while cashing more checks and slipping through the fingertips of Hanratty and his troops. Everyone he comes into contact with becomes swept away by na and falls for his act,, flow and fun-filled plot prove an exhilarating experience. The story overflows with whimsical characters. Sheen and Walken add spunk to the story as their recognizable personae make their performances increasing- ly entertaining. DiCaprio shines in his unabashed- ly honest and ardent role, and Hanks, as always, is at the top of his game. These two shine as their relationship fluctuates from cop-robber to father- son. Their loneliness brings a joint sense of attachment and Hanratty's dedication to the case combined with his compassion for Frank makes him the figure that Frank wishes his father resembled. Although it might drag, Spiel- berg always manages to resume the fast paced adventure that makes it so enjoyable. Down time between evasive maneuvering allows for many of the most touching and humorous moments in the film, and the fact that it's all based on true events makes it ever more enticing as the plausibility seems to stretch beyond acceptability. Technically flawless, smart and engrossing, "Catch Me if You Can" is definitely one of the most captivat- ing films of the year. AN ATTEMPT AT 'ADAPTATION' By Luke Smith Daily Arts Editor whatever skills of persuasion that his father severely lacks. Walken's eerily amusing performance projects the always one-step-away paradigm to which his character is bound. Frank even the apprehensive father-in-law- to-be played by Martin Sheen. Spielberg balances the suspense, drama and comedy in superb fashion. Start to finish, the film's exuberant Reality returns: 'Celoree' Joe Millionaire' make premieres It's a movie about flowers. More like a movie about a book about flowers. To begin, all but one of the main characters in the second Charlie Kaufman/Spike Jorize vehicle are real (the writing/directing tandem last worked together on 1999's "Being John Malkovic4"). Despite garnering screenwriting credits for the film, Donald Kaufman is not real. The other characters are byproducts of artistic 6 liberties taken by Char- lie Kaufman. ** From Kaufman's adaptation of Susan ADAP Orlean's "The Orchid At Si Thief" (New Yorker piece, turned novel), we Col see a film that maybe, at some point, wanted desperately to be about flowers. Charlie Kaufman would have us believe that. Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) slouches, his hairline and waistline are inversely related, with the latter expanding in middle age. His identi- cal twin is his emotional foil. Donald Kaufman is the kind of adult who still punctuates his sentences with "bro" and thinks that come-ons like "you look hot tonight baby" work (and they do). Charlie's desire to craft a script devoid of stereotypical fluff becomes Donald's "Psycho" meets "Silence of the Lambs" thriller. While Donald speeds through his Robert McKee (Brian Cox) taught screenwriting course, Char- lie is bogged down adapting Orlean's "sprawling New Yorker shit" into a script. Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) wants so desperately to care about some- thing that she ultimate turns her cre- ation of "The Orchid Thief" into an obsession with John LaRoche (Chris Cooper). LaRoche is an autodidactic redneck to Orlean's primmed and proper New York intellectual. She fol- lows him through Florida tracking his T ho un obsession with orchids, his ability renounce his waxing and waning pas- sions. She is trapped as a writer and LaRoche is her escape; he becomes her passion. These two plotlines exist separately bound only by the Kaufman brothers' script, with much of the Orlean/LaRoche plot happening sig- nificantly earlier in the film's ficti- tious chronology while simultaneously serving as the script Kaufman wrote. "Adaptation" unquestionably por- trays some of the year's finest acting, in arguably the year's ** finest ensemble. Nico- las Cage's performance ATION as the Kaufman twins, wcase despite being a techno- logical feat, returns nbia Cage to top form. Meryl Streep's Susan Orlean (nothing like the real Orlean) is damaged and convincingly wound- ed by the barriers she has built between herself and the world. A Hol- lywood guru of sorts, Robert McKee, is poked at by Kaufman's script and Brian Cox's hilariously accurate por- trayal. Chris Cooper's John LaRoche is the finest performance of the ensemble. Sans three front teeth, and some 20 pounds lighter, Cooper's gangly intellectual-hick (should such an oxymoron exist) is a "fun charac- ter," as Valerie (Tilda Swinton), a film executive, points out throughout. Making his bones with skateboard and music videos, it is no surprise that Jonze's lone weakness as a director is in his use of sound. The film's score, by Carter Burwell, is nothing out- standing, and his use of sound and music pales in comparison to the films of his contemporaries, like P.T. Anderson's 2002 film "Punch-Drunk Love." As a feature-length filmmaker, Jonze holds himself in check, far more than with his music videos (he directed the Beastie Boys "Sabotage" and Weezer's "Buddy Holly"). The filmmakers would have us believe that "Adaptation" is the inter- section between reality and fiction, a place where we, like voyeurs, watch a man struggling with a script for a movie, a movie that somehow you're already watching. It is a manipulating voyage contrived and calculated each step of the way. But "Adaptation" is, at its core, about the difficulties asso- ciated with the process of adapting, albeit a literary work, or within our lives. "Adaptation" is ultimately about failure and one's inability to adapt. LaRoche calls adaptation "a pro- found process. It means you learn how to thrive in the world." Charlie Kaufman isn't thriving in the world and he is failing to adapt. Early on, Kaufman challenges himself to write a script devoid of Hollywood convention, or McKeeian principles. He simply wanted to write a script about flowers. He failed. "Adapta- tion" isn't about flowers at all and in its saddening conclusion -we see that Charlie Kaufman failed to adapt "The Orchid Thief" into the film he wanted to make. Instead, with the help of his brother Donald, he gave us something much, much better. By Christian Smith Daily Arts Writer When "The Bachelor" debuted last spring, it became a modest hit, a sole bright spot in ABC's depleted lineup. This season, it detracted the number of viewers from NBC's "The West Wing" by over 30 percent. For those of us who can't wait a few months Michel when he decided to continue dating another women. This time, Rehn, a 29 year-old physical therapist and former Miami Heat cheerleader, gets to turn the tables and have 25 men vie for her affection. For those not familiar with the original "Bachelor" series, it is quite simple. "The Bache- lorette" follows the same format, as Trista is introduced to 25 attractive and W until a new batch of ABC's wildly popular reality/dating show returns, viewers will have to settle for two "new" series about the same thing; one, FOX's "Joe Millionaire," is a complete retread and the other, ABC's "The Bachelorette," though justifiable as a "Bache- lor" spin-off, is just as inexcusable. Those who watched the first installment of "The Bachelor" will be familiar with both the rules and the contestant of "The Bachelorette," M THE BACHELORETTE Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ABC JOE MILLIONAIRE Premiere tonight at 9 p.m. Airs regularly Tuesdays at 9 p.m. FOX successful men and has to whittle them down week-by-week to a sin- gle few - and then eventually, to a final one. In a slight change, the men who accept the roses offered by Trista as a pass to the next round will then move into the Los Angeles 'bache- lorette pad' with her. "Joe Millionaire," which debuts tonight at 9 p.m. on FOX, also takes the original formu- la of "The Bachelor," having a slew of women compete over a man they know nothing tle twist. The titular Joe is no million- aire, but in fact 28-year old Evan Mar- riott, a construction worker whose annual salary is a piddling $19,000. As the series opens, the 20 women competing for the prize are whisked off to a chateau in the French Riviera where Evan has just undergone a makeover and received intensive training in order to camouflage him- self as a denizen of the upper-class (i.e. wine-tasting, horseback-riding). Each episode follows Evan as he 'courts' the various women, and tries to maintain a rich man's facade, end- ing with a "Bachelor"-style elimina- tion. But the true test comes after he narrows the field down to one woman, when he must then reveal his true identity to her. Though "Joe Millionaire laughably attempts to disguise itself as a satire of reality shows wrapped in an age- old morality tale, at least the concept only allows it to happen one time. And while nothing can be as hideous as hearing one more "the most dra- matic rose ceremony yet," it will be interesting to see if Trista can find true love in what will surely be a real frat-fest. As long as "The Bache- lorette" and "Joe Millionaire" don't take themselves as seriously as "The Bachelor" did, we're in for quite a tel- evision treat this new year. Courtesy o Coumbia Sprawling New Yorker feet. Ni A look at the underside of U of M Ike Michigan Leekeeper's Association is looking for candidales fop the 2003 Michigan honey Queen. Tie Dageant will Iheld at MSU on MarchI 76, 2003. call810-797-5914 Deadline to apply: January 31, 2003 which takes over the old "Bachelor" timeslot Wednesdays at 9 p.m. Last April, more than 18 million viewers watched Trista Rehn get to the final round before being dumped by Alex about, except the fact he recently inherited $50 million. But for those who aren't satisfied by this simple pseudo-reality concept, the producers of the show have cooked up quite a lit- www.universitysecrets.com I the University Musical Society presents .g i ExrTj, 0~un the 2003 Winter Season Half-Price Student Ticket Sale! At the annual Half-Price Student Ticket Sale, students with valid ID can purchase HALF-PRICE TICKETS to any show in our winter season. This extremely popular event draws hundreds of students every year - last year, students saved nearly $100,000 by purchasing tickets at the Half-Price Student Ticket Sale! Get there early - some performances have limited numbers of tickets available. Saturday, Jan 11 loam - 1 pm Power Center i I I