Good Fun; DiCaprio's Best Since "Titanic"

Rating: 7/10 (19 July 2003)

This movie earns a good rating if only for bringing to light the unbelievable and yet true story of Frank Abagnale (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), a young scam artist who bilked banks out of millions and who, having been captured and come clean, eventually put his talents to work in the other direction. If you can get through what I thought was an agonizingly boring animated sequence that runs during the opening credits (which seemed to go on forever) you'll enjoy this.
The movie is about Abagnale's criminal days, and takes the viewer on a roller coaster of situations which Abagnale manages to lie, swindle and cheat his way through, all the time being pursued by FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks); thus the title of the movie. It's a fun story (particularly, I thought, his very first "scam" - as a student at a new school, he manages to convince people that he's a substitute French teacher and actually "works" in that capacity for 10 days until he's discovered!)
In my opinion, this is DiCaprio's best performance since "Titanic." I haven't been impressed with his work since, but here he really managed to become the character of Abagnale (much as he did with Dawson in "Titanic") rather than simply looking as though he were acting a part. He was clearly the star of the movie. Tom Hanks, on the other hand, quite surprisingly disappointed me a bit, and I would rarely say that about such a talented actor. Perhaps it was the part of Hanratty, but Hanks just didn't stand out to me. It seemed as though a hundred actors could have played the role without anything (except the name Tom Hanks) being lost. So, my normal expectations of the two stars were reversed here, which made the movie all the more interesting.
It's an enjoyable way to spend an evening.
7/10