the background story
Catch Me If You Can was released in 2002 and is based around the life of the infamous con-man Frank Abagnale Jnr (Di Caprio) who's real life game of cat and mouse with FBI agent Carl Hanratty (played by Tom Hanks) during the 1960's was almost talk of the US.
Abagnale made a career of 1 thing, fraud, more specifically impersonation and fraud, which included impersonating a pirate a doctor and a lawyer, all the while forging cheques, and cashing them, what started as a small time thing in america become a world wide scam.

The movie
Starts with a game show type scenario where by the host asks 3 men (all of whom are "Frank william abagnale") questions about him (well asking the first 2) before it goes off to a French prison, in which Frank is being held.

We then go back the a flash back of when Jnr was 16 and watching his father collect an award (Christopher Walken plays Frank william Abagnale Snr). It's the father figure that quickly becomes a pivotal if not massively involved character that sows the seed of the future adventures of the son who looks up to him...and tries to take the gift of the gab one step further.

More than anything the movie revolves around a "Bad Guy" V a "Good Guy" rivalry in which the bad guy needs the good guy to chase him to get his kicks. The bad guy taunts the FBI agent throughout, mainly to keep the attention of the agent, and mainly to carry on the game they play, this is the basis of most of the movie.

More than just a pretty face
When I first saw this little gem of a movie about 8 months ago at a friends I was staying at and watching their entire DVD collection and at the time Ithought to myself "Holy shit Leonardo Di Caprio CAN act". After previously seeing him in Titanic and Romeo and Juliet I was under the belief, that, much like Heath Ledger, he was a pretty average actor with a pretty face. I know, I know, we can't talk ill of the dead...well tough ok I don't get the whole Heath Ledger love-in thing, he was a semi decent actor, not the next coming of Brando, Bogart, DeNiro, or a young male version of Streep, he was another pretty faced male with minimal talent who's looks drove him to the middle of the tree (would of been the top if the guy wasn't a flaming idiot).

The cat
If we agree Di Caprio plays the mouse, then Hanks' role as Hanratty is the role of the proverbial cat, chasing Abagnale jnr around trying to catch the fraudster thats making the FBI a laughing stock. Hanks plays the role wonderfully well and shows he can play serious and that Saving Private Ryan wasn't a total fluke on his behalf.

The supporting cast
includes Martin Sheen and Jennifer Garner as well as the aforementioned Walken, a trio that would be the starring cast in most other movies, is only relegated here due to the magnificent performances of the two leading men.

The script
This is where the movie could have fallen down, you can have the greatest actors in the world but give them a naff script, and the movie is bollocksed from the start. Thankfully the script is based on the real Abagnale's book of his fraudulent adventures, which makes it not only believeable, but with Jeff Nathanson's adaptation for the screenplay, it's really amazing.

The soundtrack
Often when I watch a movie, I don't pay much attention to the backing music, this time I'm making a conscious effort to listen to it and the string based backing through out leaves a soft underlying sound that doesn't take anything away from the movie, and seems only to fill in the backing.

Length
The movie is over 2 hours long, which may put some off, but the pace of the movie is wonderful and you often forget you've been watching it for the past 90 min's as it's one of those movies that makes it seem like times actually flying.

The movie does have some satirical references, such as how some people are looked upon whilst others are looked down on, such as when Franks a Pilot he seems to be automatically accepted, though whilst as himself, he's completely dismissed out of hand.

Summary
The movie despite probably not being a movie that will appeal to many, mainly as it's missing huge multi-car pile ups, no shoot outs, no amazing scenes of special effects. However, what the movie has is wonderful acting, a very clever script, and the movie as a whole is just so very smart.