tupungato

This movie certainly entertains, but a viewer can find it as suspenseful as he does informative, touching, and powerful, given that such a con- artist, who deceived hospital administrators, airline pilots, and lawyers, and made the FBI look unprofessional and foolish, really did exist. Christopher Walken does a commendable job as Frank Abagnale Senior, the failed father who exudes irresponsibility and has a victim's ready excuse for his mistakes. Interesting to see how Frank Abagnale Junior (Leonardo DiCaprio), though he grows to see his father more clearly, deals with his hurt by acting out some of his father's antisocial behavior, becoming that of which he most disapproves in a parent. Frank Abagnale Jr. seems to have found the mentor he would have preferred in Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), the determined and ethical FBI agent who finally catches up to the fast-talking fraud.

Back in the 1960's some wise sociologists affirmed that weekly television sitcoms and dramas were misleading viewers regarding the struggles one has at home, in school, at work, or about town because the scripts involved tame situations and lead characters were resolving problems with friends, spouses, siblings, and co-workers within only a half hour. In its way Parenthood also deludes the viewer. Within an hour one sees two brothers argue about their failing business, a young separated couple attempt reconciliation, the stubborn family patriarch undergo open-heart surgery, and the confused victim of Asberger's disease go through another outbreak. Because the actors perform very convincingly, whether they express passion, rage, or worry in the face of the unappealing situations that people must unfortunately endure, I have found myself identifying with and even rooting for some of the characters. The makers of Parenthood still don't present life realistically, though. For most of us it often goes by uneventfully.

Before the smaller, slender, more harmless looking Dilophosaurus turned aggressive, the Tyrannosaurus Rex lived up to its fierce reputation, and Dennis Nedry attempted to make off with the Barbasol can of dinosaur embryos, I had already watched my favorite scene. When Paleontologhist Alan Grant (Sam Neill), and the park creator's grandchildren, Lex and Tim Murphy (Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello), first hiked through the park, looking in amazement as herds of swiftly running Gallimimuses, swooping pterodactyls, and plodding brachiosauruses appeared all about them, they reacted so appropriately that the action and suspense that followed felt a little anti-climatic. Astonished and wide-eyed, Lex and Tim Murphy innocently asked questions, and wise Dr. Grant imparted his knowledge when he wasn't shaking his head incredulously each time he saw another enormous, heretofore extinct reptile.

The performances, images, script, and the scenes featuring the rampaging tyranasaurus as it thundered after the jeep or plucked a man from an outhouse toilet, all deserve very high marks. For me and possibly for other viewers, though, who as 8 year-olds had read about the brontosaurus, allosaurus, stegosaurus, and triceratops, and had played and pretended with little plastic versions of them, the makers of Jurassic Park had to present the first human-dinosaur encounter very believably. To me, they did.