There are good things but there could have been a lot of good things but????

Rating: 5/10 (26 December 2002)

With Steven Spielberg to direct and Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio as stars how can you miss right? Well what should have been either a 100 minute well edited fun movie or a mini-series but at two hours and twenty odd minutes it is way too long and paradoxically not long enough.
You see there are some neat things in this story. What did Frank Abagnale Sr. , wonderfully played by Christopher Walken, do for a living? Was he a printer or just run a stationary store? I mean where did Frank Jr.( DiCaprio) learn about inks and paper and such? It would have given depth to the story and was not there that I saw.
They spent time on Frank Sr's wife and Junior's mother Paula Abagnale played with a wonderful style by Natalie Baye, but was she a hooker in France or was she a money grubbing tramp and the whole divorce scene was played like Junior had not been living there for sixteen years? I couldn't tell for sure.
Spielberg can do better work. Tom Hanks must feel greatly relieved that a picture can be made that he doesn't have to be the mainstay? He was slow to grow on you but ultimately very good as FBI agent Carl Hanratty.
This is sort of fun for a matinee movie but it is not award class. Those who say it is must have seen the director's cut or something? It is an ok movie, but I would have not liked it at full price nearly as much.