Leonardo DiCaprio + Tom Hanks + Steven Spielberg = one good movie

Rating: 9/10 (7 July 2010)

If you were sixteen and ran away from home, what would you do? Work an honest job with lousy pay? Go crawling back to your parents? Or would you do what Frank Abignale did? fly all over the world and cheat banks out of millions of dollars.
Catch Me If You Can tells the incredible true story of the kid who became one of the most wanted con mans in American history. Starring Tom Hanks and Leonardo Dicaprio this is a slick, good looking, and intelligently funny movie that ranks up with some of Steven Spielberg's best work.
Frank Abignale (Leonardo DiCaprio) lives what would seem like a perfect middle-class life, but when his father is convicted by the IRS for bank fraud things start to fall apart. His parents file for divorce and he has to choose whose custody he is going to be put in. So what does he do? he runs, and with high intentions of getting his family back together, after all isn't that what every kid wants? Frank went from forging fake cheques to eventually becoming a co-pilot for PanAm American Airways, a supervising MD, and assistant prosecutor, by the end stealing up to 5 million dollars. For a time he thought he was untouchable, but FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) is keen to put him behind bars, and so the story of the cat and the mouse begins.
While the two are hardly on screen together they do share an amusing relationship. The cat and mouse are two very different, but also very similar creatures. Both had lost families to a divorce and as much as they wish they could have it back they both realize that you have to grow up. DiCaprio pulls of the best performance since "What's Eating Gilbert Grape", another recommendable movie. Tom Hanks excels exceptionally well as the uptight agent in heavy pursuit of the criminal and Christopher Walken plays the very good optimistic father figure.
One thing I found ridiculous was Steven's depiction of how easy it was to get a job in the 60's. Frank would simply observe the terminology of various occupations presented in movies and perform them in the facility where the practice is conducted. This gets me thinking of how much of this movie is actually fictionalized.
However in spite of that this is still one the most outrageous, scandalist, funny stories I have ever seen, and what makes it even better is knowing that it actually happened. A bit too long a movie considering the plot line, but that can easily be forgiven when you're watching it because those 2 hours will just fly by.