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An enormously entertaining (if somewhat shallow) affair from blockbuster director Steven Spielberg. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Frank Abagnale, Jr., a dazzling young con man who spent four years impersonating an airline pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer--all before he turned 21. All the while he's pursued by a dedicated FBI agent named Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), whose dogged determination stays one step behind Abagnale's spontaneous wits. Both DiCaprio and Hanks turn in enjoyable performances and the movie has a bouncy rhythm that keeps it zipping along. However, it never gets under the surface of Frank's drive to lose himself in other identities, other than a simplistic desire to please his father (Christopher Walken, excellent as always), nor does it explore the complex mechanics of fraud with any depth. By the movie's end, it feels like one of Frank's pilot uniforms--appearance without substance.--Bret Fetzer
A Tender, Entertaining Film About a Man Running From Himself Frank Abagnale, Jr. has been raised on images of a family that doesn't really exist--a romantic and lasting love affair between his WWII vet dad and his French mother; his father's booming stationery business; a thieving kind of resourcefulness. He worships no one so much as his own father, although the images Frank JR glimpses through his rose-colored glasses aren't so much reality as they are the landscape his father has created for him to see.
So, when his parents split early on in the movie, after his father's troubles with the IRS finally bring their family finances crashing down, Frank Jr is asked to choose--his mother or his father, and it's an impossible choice (which any child of divorced parents certainly feels in this moving scene.) Frank's choice? He takes off running, hence the title and it's initial confrontation, though Frank's as haunted and hounded by FBI Agent Henratti (sp?), played by Tom Hanks as he is his heartbreaking childhood.
Frank proceeds to run from one end of America to the other, criss-crossing in a trail of bank fraud, check kiting and the like (he's a "paper hanger", in the words of Hanks' character.) But as the story unfolds, and it's certainly great entertainment to watch DiCaprio's Abagnale foil society, financial instituions and school bullies, it's as much about the elusive things he's running *toward* as the past he's running from. In the end, I found this to be a melancholy-yet-uplifting tale about a young man's search for authenticity, a father, and roots. Loved it, through and through!
Love remains This is one of the best Christopher Walkin movies ever. Tom Hanks and Leo DiCrapio are alright in this so-so film. The script is weak and the movies too long. Martin Sheen keeps it real.Excellent movie ... A good fathers day gift An excellent movie about a smart conman who eventually ends up rendering his skills to the FBI.
The movie is not just about this, but a lot of subtle things like the relationships between Abagnale and his dad.
Some of the scences were very well picturized -The silent mutual giggle which Abagnale(Leonardo) and his dad exchange as they walk out from the School principal's office -When Tom Hanks enquires with Abagnale's dad if he know where Leonardo is, his dad replies that 'If you had son, you will know that it is your son whom you love more than anything else'
Overall, it is one of the best movies I have seen. Everything in this movie deserves 5 stars.
