bubblegum fluff, in self-important Spielberg dressing

Rating: 6/10 (1 August 2003)

Imagine "The Talented Mr. Ripley" retold as a 1950's beach-blanket flick (hot sports cars, bikini babes, parents unaware of their out-of-control, freewheeling children) and you have "Catch Me if You Can," another Spielberg flick that's in love with its own imagined sense of importance. Not that it isn't entertaining, it is quite entertaining, but once the effects of this sugarcoated, high-gloss 'true story' wear off, it makes you wonder why we should really care about some kid who ran around the globe forging checks and seducing girls with low self-esteem to get ahead in his extortion scams. Tom Hanks shows up once again (*yawn*) with his typical 'martyr of purity' shtick; I would've preferred less of him and more of Christopher Walken's impassioned (and far more brief) performance as a long-suffering father.
6/10