It caught me!

Rating: 10/10 (18 June 2003)

Believe it or not, Leonardo DiCaprio has acted well in the past. "This Boy's Life" and "Basketball Diaries" come to mind. He couldn't miss with this kind of material. It's one of those "how could you not like this?" kind of movies. Such a unique story is perfect fodder for a movie. People are gullible. How many firms really pore over college transcripts and check out all those references in depth? Charm gets you quite far in this life because as much as ability counts, an employer also wants to know, "Am I going to be able to stand this guy for eight hours a day?"
Here's basically a slimy little kid named Frank Abagnale fooling everyone, essentially stealing millions of dollars, pretending to be some really high-level occupations (pilot, doctor, lawyer, teacher) and what happens? The viewer actually finds himself rooting for him. That's a combination of Steven Spielberg's directorial expertise and Leo's fine work with the script.
At least the Oscar folks remembered Christopher Walken by nominating him for best-supporting actor, though Chris Cooper got the statue for "Adaptation." Too bad. As usual, Walken takes over the screen every time he's featured, and the performance as DiCaprio's dad was Oscar-worthy. Tom Hanks was good as FBI agent Carl Hanratty, though it sounded as if he received New England accent lessons from Kevin Costner in "13 Days." In other words, "ugh!"
Terrific film. Should have been nominated for Best Picture. It was the best I saw in 2002.