Catch it!

Rating: 10/10 (2 February 2003)

It is the 1960's when Frank Abagnale Jr runs away from his crumbling family and begins the life of a fraudster, inpersonating a pilot, doctor and lawyer, and cashing millons in bad cheques all around the world. All before he had even turned eighteen.
So begins a game of cat and mouse where the teenage Frank tries to stay one step ahead of the bumbling FBI Agent Carl Handratty who is trying to track him down. The escape scenes are a lot of fun, the father /son moments between Frank and his father are filled with heartwarming drama. But it is the relationship between Frank and Carl that is special. Right from the opening scene you know Frank is going to prison but you wonder how Carl will eventually catch him. And what a scene when it comes!
Walken is great as Frank Snr.
Hanks's Handratty is far from his best work, but that certainly does not mean he's bad. He's just not in Forest Gump mode.
DiCaprio steals the show after being eclipsed by Day Lewis in GONY. He is outstanding in the role of the supremely confident fraudster Frank on one hand, as well as the vunerable kid who justs wants his family back together. It's a shame that he will probably miss out on an Oscar nomination , because he hasn't been this good since What's eating Gilbert Grape? Definately worth the ten year wait.
9/10 - Great film - Based on the true story of the life of Frank Abagnale Jr, Catch me if you can is a treasure of a movie. The action moves at a pace, without seeming to move at all, and you are drawn in a moment from laughter to sadness and back again just as quickly. How refreshing to see a film that shows some originality! Thank you Mr Spielberg. Thank you Leonardo. You are both forgiven. (A.I, Minority Report, Titanic, The Beach....) More of the same PLEASE!!!