Frank W. Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) lives in a small suburb of New York, with his father Frank Sr. (Christopher Walken) and French-immigrant-mother Paula (Nathalie Baye). His life is relatively happy, until he returns from school one day to an ultimatum: his parents are getting a divorce and he must choose which parent he wants to live with from now on.
Rather than making a decision, he runs away, and begins to support himself with the assistance of a slew of bad cheques, until he decides to pose as an Pan-Am airline pilot.
Using the practice of 'deadheading' (a term in air travel for a pilot who flies on an aircraft in a 'spare' seat (not actually piloting the aircraft, but 'hitchhiking' in a sense), he flies all over the country, and even internationally, though never with Pan-Am itself, for fear they will clock his fraudulent ID badge.
After he has enough of flying, and all while contiuning to cash fraudulent cheques, he settles for a time in Georgia, where he poses as a paediatrician, and winds up supervising the night shift in the emergency ward of a hospital, where he meets young candy-striper Brenda Strong (Amy Adams).
The two become engaged, and Frank then begins working for Brenda's father Roger (Martin Sheen) in his law firm as an assistant prosecutor (having successfully passed the bar exam in the state of Louisiana).
All through his exploits, he is relentlessly pursued by FBI Agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), who works in the bank fraud department. There are a few near misses for Hanratty, moments where he comes so close to capturing Abagnale, but only to have him slip away yet again.
The screenplay by Jeff Nathanson, from Abagnale's book, is reasonably well written, with plenty of action, and plenty of twists and turns to keep the audience on the edge of their seat. Of course, most of these twists are taken from the book, rather than being of Nathanson's invention; Abagnale's life was filled with twists. There are a few minor alterations from the book to the script, but these are nowhere near significant enough to affect the plot of the film greatly (these are just things I happen to know, having followed Abagnale's story since hearing him speak a little over twenty years ago).
John Williams's music is fantastic (but when has John Williams ever written a bad score?), with a repeated leitmotif throughout the film that, while appearing simple in its construction, is anything but, particularly as it recurs throughout the film in different arrangements and with modified instrumentation at each occurrence.
One of the strongest elements of this film, however, is the cinematography. Janusz Kaminski has an incredible touch when it comes to his use of light and dark, and particularly the use of shadow. There are many sequences which take place in almost total darkness, which give these moments a film-noir feel, and highlight particular elements exceptionally well. I refer primarily to the scenes set in the French prison (nothing more about that here; I don't want to spoil the film for you).
Jeannine Oppewall's production design and Mary Zophres's gorgeous costumes both set the scene perfectly, and particularly ground us in the world of the 1960s when most of the film takes place.
The performances of the cast are also fantastic, particularly those of DiCaprio and Hanks, as the two opposing forces who continue to be forced together by fate. An honourable mention must also go to Christopher Walken who, as always, is brilliant in his performance, bringing so much life to his character, but doing so in the most subtly beautiful way.
Director Steven Spielberg has made a wonderful thrill-ride of a film here that, though I may be biased due to my fascination with Abagnale's exploits, is a film I always enjoy watching. If you haven't seen it yet, make sure you check it out at your earliest opportunity.
8 1/2 out of 10.
