DiCaprio's best work since Gilbert Grape!

Rating: Null/10 (1 January 2003)

Yes, I have seen Gangs of New York and Titanic. Here DiCaprio plays what he plays best: a manboy. He still looks sixteen, but when he needs to he can have all the maturity and confidence of a thirty year old. Tom Hanks and Christopher Walken do their typical great work, but they're not on the screen enough (or their characters weren't complex enough) for thespians of this caliber. I would like to have seen more of the father that refuses to believe his son is a criminal, and of the policeman who's the only one offering any kind of disciplinarian, paternal guidance -- which Abegnale seems to crave.
Whether Abegnale is defrauding the Louisiana bar association or the U.S. taxpayer, we forgive him. We forgive him for the same reason we forgive the murderer in Dial M for Murder or the thieves in The Brinks Job: we admire how they did it. We are awed by the intelligence and the confidence (and sometimes sheer persistence) it takes to beat the system. These are all qualities we wish we had more of sometimes, though mostly with less ulterior motives.
Sometimes we have more empathy for the criminal because we have less empathy for the victims. Had the would be stewardesses been more intelligent, had Amy Adams' character been more confident, had Martin Sheen's character been more persistent, Abegnale would easily had been unmasked.
Spielberg can make even a warehouse look luscious, but he needs a screenwriter to challenge him. The Color Purple gave him the most multi-dimensional characters. The story by itself is of course compelling, but he needs to find a script with the depth to match his breadth.