Not too exciting

Rating: 6/10 (12 March 2003)

A kid with special talent for cheating and swindling takes it as a way of life after the shock he feels with his parents' divorce. After that there is a succession of forgeries and impersonations some of them a bit unbelievable that take place in a not too exciting development. The kid is not a bad guy after all and has a lot of chances to show his good sentiments. He almost always behaves nicely. The affection developed between chaser and chased (maybe the most important feature of the movie) is not deeply explored. Well the story is a bit lukewarm and makes you sometimes think how is it possible that the kid has not been caught on several occasions. We only believe it due to to the great individual freedom and personal mobility that exist (and existed already in the sixties when the story takes place) in USA with the possibility of people changing their names all the time if they want to, etc.. I think in most European countries that kid would be caught very soon with our much more tight personal controls, mandatory identity cards, etc.. Concerning the acting, Di Caprio is equal to himself as we know him and in my opinion Tom Hanks' real talent is waisted in this movie. By the way a curious note: FBI agents are not shown here as the usual supermen and heroes but many of them as somewhat poor guys and not very bright. Well just a tolerable movie no more than that.