Catch Me If You Can
Steven Spielberg veered from the futuristic sci-fi flirtations ofA.I.andMinority Reportwith this brisk, stylish period take on the career of teen con-man extraordinaire Frank Abagnale (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his dogged G-man pursuer/de facto extended family member Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks). As always, the director's musical collaborator is John Williams, and the scoring legend uses the occasion of their 20th collaboration as a rewarding musical journey back to the days when he was known as Johnny Williams, ambitious young pianist forHenry Mancinion such early jazz scores asPeter Gunn. Informed by a half-century of subsequent achievement, Williams's return to the jazz idiom of his youth yields a smart, nervous score that evokes more than mere nostalgia. But with Dan Higgins's moody sax often leading the way, the veteran composer's work here seems more evocative reinvention than revisitation, yet another tribute to his uncanny ability to make any idiom his own. A handful of pop standards (includingSinatra's "Come Fly with Me,"GetzandGilberto's "Girl from Ipanema," "The Christmas Song" byNat "King" Cole) deftly color both period and plot, but, as always, it's Williams who provides Spielberg's masterful imagery with its musical life's blood.--Jerry McCulley