Speaking of the storyline, at times it is positively unsettling. Take, for instance, Frank's escape from Miami International Airport with his eight Pan Am "goodwill tour ambassadors," recruited from a local college. While his entourage is apparently successful in conveying Frank to the plane on which he will steal a ride to Europe, Spielberg, not surprisingly, fails to show us how this occurs. What becomes of the eight young ladies? Are we to assume that Frank slips away from them and on board the plane, leaving them as just eight more unwitting victims of his connivery? And how, exactly, does Frank get a ride on a plane in an airport where everyone is intent on catching him, a notorious "skywayman" who has made headlines nationally, is all the talk in the airline industry, and whose picture the police have. Are we to believe that Frank just hopped on a cockpit jump seat for his free ride with all the pilots in the airport having been warned to be on the lookout for a man fitting just his description? I guess we'll just never know.

Also, Frank's broken relationship with Brenda leaves something to be desired in the way of resolution. Here is a naive young girl who Frank engages and then leaves, asking her to meet him at the airport. She does, but with an entourage of law enforcement officers. Is this of her own volition? If we knew that, it would make it much easier to stomach their break-up. And what in tarnation is the point Spielberg is trying to make by having a girl disowned by her family as a result of her having an abortion reunited with them by a con man? I'm not sure how closely this follows the book, but Spielberg sure plays it up.

All those points being made, I still recommend seeing this movie. It's a fun couple of hours (for the most part), and really is an intriguing story, made all the more intereting by being based on the real-life exploits of Frank Abagnale. The acting is good, the plot is adaquate, and it's the best way to see Leonardo DiCaprio this season if you don't like seeing him knifed and branded.

Bobby Allison-Gallimore is studying law at the University of Kansas. When he's not doing that, he's wishing he had gone to film school instead. In between, he writes for BlogCritics and for his own website, The Rattler.