Great fun, DiCaprio is perfect

Rating: 9/10 (7 March 2007)

SPOILERS BELOW
This is one of those movies that you're not sure you are going to like, and you watch it, and you end up loving it. It's fast paced, well acted and directed, and great fun.
Leonardo DiCaprio is utterly charming and endearing as Frank Abagnale, Jr., a teenager who in the 1960's posed as an airline pilot, a doctor and a lawyer-all the while evading the FBI who wanted him for check fraud. Tom Hanks shines as Carl Hanratty, the fed who first wants to nail Frank, then ends up taking him under his wing and giving him new direction in his life. Christoper Walken and Nathalie Baye as Frank's star-crossed parents also give fine performances. Amy Adams nearly steals the movie as the young woman who steals Frank's heart.
The film is about a young man who is traumatized by what the US government has done to his family so he decides to literally become other people to escape from whom he really is. Frank is a charming smooth talker with an uncanny knack for forging checks and documents. He's so angelic looking and unassuming that none of his victims are aware they are being conned. As he has proved time and again in films like "This Boy's Life," "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," and "Titanic," DiCaprio is more than just a pretty face. He has the talent to back it up, and this role is tailor-made for him. Under Spielberg's direction, he's taken that talent to another level. Ultimately it becomes about a surrogate father/son relationship between Frank and Carl. While he's trying to outwit and outrun the sometimes curmudgeonly FBI agent, Frank admires him at the same time. Carl, for his part, does hold a soft spot for Frank, and he leads him down the path to redemption.
The sets, the costumes, and the music all capture the essence of the sixties, when anything was possible and nothing was out of reach if you wanted it.
I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this film-I give it a 9 out of 10.