what a delightful surprise !

Rating: 8/10 (1 July 2003)

I passed this by when I saw it on the racks because I had never heard of it and because 'Titanic' ruined Leonardo deCaprio for me. However I caught a trailer for it at the beginning of the film I wound up renting that day, and was intrigued. It was my subsequent rental, and turned out to be a delightful surprise, and one of the best movies I have seen lately.
Right at the start, Spielberg is making a nostalgic gesture towards older days with the elaborate, whimsical title sequence. The title sequence became a whole deal unto itself in movies of the 60's & 70's (take, e.g., Saul Bass's great work in this area for Alfred Hitchcock), but has pretty much disappeared nowadays. It was nice to revisit this experience, with John Williams' playful score augmenting the visuals. An auspicious start.
DeCaprio's work here makes me revise my low expectations of him. He does a fine job here as the driven Frank Abagnale. Likewise for Tom Hanks as agent Handratty, my only complaint with whom is his phony Boston accent. The chemistry between the two is great.
The excellent script and Spielberg's direction keeps the movie going at a good clip and definitely keeps us on the edge of our seat as we see Frank artfully keep one step ahead of the dogged Handratty. The film is richly textured as well. It works as a suspense/intrigue movie, but also shows us Frank's complex motivations and confused family life. It also skillfully interweaves some delightful moments of ironic humor.
Mention must be made of Christopher Walken - a fine and underrated actor - who here does a superb job as Frank's well-meaning, but doomed-to-failure father. Walken does a great job of making us feel sympathy for this man who never seems quite able to get his life together, but whose intentions are always good.
On the whole, an excellent movie which takes us back to simpler days when moviemakers found fascinating stories about interesting people and told them as entertainingly as they could.