Reception Theory

Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can was based on the true story of Frank Abagnale (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) who managed to become a Substitute Teacher, a Pilot, a Doctor, and pass the Bar all whilst being in High School. His journey of fraud and deception is followed by FBI Agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) tracking his every move and failing miserably to hunt him down. The film is tainted by the knowledge that the audience has from the very beginning. He gets caught.
I think that an Mainstream audience would be a target audience for this, as it is directed by one of the most Mainstream film producers as well as staring big hollywood stars such as Hanks and DiCaprio who had just came off the face of the Titanic film which had skyrocketed his career. Despite its unusual narrative and use of flashbacks the plotline is relatively easy to understand and is an enjoyable film with messages of life thrown in throughout the way.

A preferred reading would fall in love with Franks passion to live life to the fullest possible, and admire his thirst for success and how even though he is a criminal who is breaking the law and costing the state millions, feel for the character. They know that he is going to be caught from the outset of the film yet they still pray that he doesn't. The audience feels that he breaks the law for the right reasons and isn't doing it for the selfish, greedy reasons associated with fraud. They admire his deceitfulness and applaud him for being able to pull the fantasy life off for so long. They sympathise with him when he begins to realise that this lavish, successful life has no reality to it, and put themselves in his shoes when his family life slowly begins to dissolve and one by one he loses those around him and ends up alone. They enjoy the teasing relationship between Frank and Carl and are happy when we learn that they do become friends in the end. They believe the film teaches them that life is for living, but to however stay grounded and not get caught up in a fantasy and lose sight of whats important.

A oppositional reading would see through the romanticising of Abagnale and view him as a young, foolish criminal with no skill in committing the crimes he did just sheer luck. They see him as greedy and that he only uses people for his own personal gain. They think he only got engaged to Brenda to exploit her family's position in the legal industry. They sympathise with Agent Hanratty, who spent several years of his career trying to track Abagnale down and was taunted by his uncaring attitude along the way. They think that the way in which he was caught shows that his luck had finally run out and it reflected his youth and carless aura about life. They think that his original punishment was a harsh and fair way of him spending his life but his updated sentence of working for the FBI in the fraud section was an easy way out of a life of solitary confinement which he deserved. The oppositional reading may be taken due to cultural experience. For example, people may not be familiar with a troubled family life and money issues that Abagnale and his family faced, so therefore do not see it as an reason or him to act this way and don't necessarily see it as an escape from his parents divorcing but more of a hunger to be rich and admired in all aspects of the professional world.

An audience may take a negotiated reading to the text due to their situated culture. This may be that they didn't see the beginning of the film properly as their two young children were being too noisy and the person watching had to focus on putting them to bed rather than the film itself. This means that they do not realise the age of Frank, and just think he is a man who cant really decide on a career path so just tries them all but commits fraudulent acts along the way.