Catch Me If You Can (2002)
I'd been meaning to rewatch this one for quite a while.
When I first watched this, I only knew Leonardo DiCaprio from the film "Titanic" and from his reputation as a pin-up for teenage girls. It wasn't until I saw "The Aviator" that I was finally convinced of DiCaprio's enormous acting talent.
I remembered being rather disappointed with the ending, but I also remembered enjoying this more than my stubbornness had allowed me to expect.
As it turned out, the part I thought of as the ending was earlier than I remembered. The very ending of the film is pretty cool. But there's a point during Tom Hanks pursuit of DiCaprio where I feel the film loses its momentum. The film starts feeling like a series of bits. I suppose the point is that DiCaprio's character wants to stop running around doing cons, but he has no choice but to keep going. So we have to fully recognise that the cons are just going on and on and stop feeling so keen to see what outrageous stunt he does next. But the result of it is that the film's suddenly feels rather less fun.
But even before we reach that point "Catch Me If You Can" has that unreal 'sweet and chirpy' feel that Spielberg films sometimes have. There was a similar sort of feel in "The Terminal" and though this never gets quite so banal as that did, I couldn't help but feel there was a grittier and more compelling film struggling to get out here - and that DiCaprio more than had the chops to have provide it if given the chance.
C+