Living July. 2014 | Page 9

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upFront reports

Catch Me

If You Can

This movie is an American biographical crime, drama film based on the true story of Frank Abagnale, which happens to be played by the charming and the all-time ladies favorite, Leonard DiCaprio. However, this movie is anything but a hopeless romance - so sorry ladies your just going to have to swallow this one down. As the movie is based on a true story, its relation to theoretical development in early adolescences is the main focus, or idea, one can leave with an understanding of. The story is based on a 16-year old boy name Frank Abagnale Jr. who cons multitier billionaire dollar banks and people as he disguise himself and presents himself in different occupational attires. However, the main motive of the movie is to deliver the sensitive message of early adulthood development. As seen in the movie, Frank’s parents get a divorced and as a result his dreams of a family start to shatter, thus he is dragged into reality - adult world. This can be applied to Erik Erikson’s theory in which he states the main development of an individual emerges through eight stages in which the identity of one is forms and this identity is an result of a dilemma, in which the individual is challenged by the shortcomings and eventful circumstances of life.

NO, No this movie is not about a crazy toddler running around in his mini tricycle.

This was the beginning of one long dilemma for Frank’s new adventurous journey. As Erikson states that identity development is the social reflection of the progress of one’s psychological clock through which one over comes such dilemmas in his/her life. This dilemma is identified by Erikson as “identity versus role confusion” and Frank became the representative of this. As Frank strived in search of his identity after his parents divorce, he adopted adult roles to comfort his needs and as a result lost his inner innocence. Another theory, which applies to this movie, is “ The Family Life Cycle” in which one is required as a young adult to “ sort out emotionally what they will take along from the family of origin, what they will leave behind and what they will create for themselves.” In Frank’s case, he decided to take self-destructiveness and an immoral conscience from his roots. Overall the movie represented negative aspects of adolescence development to showcase positive attributes. This was a very effective method because it allows the audience to analyze and take part in the development of social critical skills rather then being spoon fed the information.