Lost Boys come of age

Rating: 9/10 (11 January 2003)

Don't believe I've ever seen a Stephen Spielberg, before this one, that was NOT branded with his particular mass-appeal style. At some point in his films, I usually feel poked in the ribs--okay, here's the punch-line from your All-American Boy, I-Love-The-Movies Director. His direction in Catch Me is coherent and strong without being intrusive, putting the story first.

Not that I want to start on a negative note. Catch Me is a really good film--funny, human--and different, for Hollywood, which usually likes its young male heroes to be hip, horny and heartless. Frank has a disarming vulnerability and attachment to his family. That lost-boy thread saves his story from being about someone who uses people, and it makes the movie.
Fine acting from Di Caprio and Walken. Even the opening credits are first-rate--clever and entertaining, but leading the viewer to the credits, rather than distracting from them.