Believable but contains goofs

Rating: Null/10 (27 December 2002)

"Catch Me If You Can" is such a meticulously crafted movie that seeing it makes me wish I had read Frank Abagnale's book first. Leonardo DiCaprio is not only believable as the "con man" (Frank), his character is downright impossible to dislike. Tom Hanks is excellent as the no-nonsense but somewhat inept FBI man trying to nab Frank. When friends are anxious to hear him tell a joke, he obliges...sort of. That scene can not be told here. Unfortunately, the careful attention to re-creating the look of the 1960s failed in two places: a scene set in 1967 shows a girl singing the 1969 song "Leaving On A Jet Plane", and in a 1969 scene Frank's dad is wearing a "U S Postal Service" jacket depicting a horse on the sleeve, even though the "Post Office Department" did not become "Postal Service" until 1970, at which time an eagle logo replaced the horse. Aside from those two goofs, the film is engrossing and enjoyable, although I'm certain that the real Frank Abagnale was not so skilled at all the fakery as the movie makes him out to be. All the con jobs are accomplished without anyone seeming the slightest bit suspicious. The old image of "shooting fish in a barrel" comes to mind. The movie's character should have had more obstacles to overcome instead of achieving his cons so facilely. At the end, a part of me was left wishing that Frank could have gotten away with all his stunts. For me, "Catch Me If You Can" catches three and a half stars out of four.