Finally got into a showing of Catch Me if You Can. I really liked it, but I went into the theater a little worried. My post about Chicago at Blogcritics elecited a bad review for Catch Me if You Can:

be glad you missed CMIYC. i saw it over the weekend and it was god awful; insanely long, dry, and drawn out. i have a feeling that if you read the book, you'd feel like they didn't leave a single thing out of the movie.

That was from Meredith, and I have to agree with her that the movie was a bit long, and a little dry. But that doesn't cancel out the film's charms, either.

Both the major stars of the film, Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio, were excellent. This is the kind of part that Leo was born to play, and I knew it from the moment he began pretending to be the substitute teacher for his French class. Hanks displayed a credible Boston (I think) accent, and was very effective as the no nonsense FBI agent charged with catching Abagnale. Christopher Walken was also very good in the small role of Abagnale's father. He had just the right touch of the defeated man, proud of his son for sticking it to the government.

After reading several reviews of the movie I expected the Abagnale character to actually become a pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer. For the most part, though, he just put on the uniform and bluffed his way out of any work. That felt quite a bit more realistic to me.

I'm not sure that the movie will win either of the awards it's nominated for. Walken has some pretty stiff competition for Best Supporting Actor, I'm not going to make a prediction until I at least see Chris Cooper in Adaptation, because that looks like a particurally fun part. The score, on the other hand, was excellent, and so far from anything else I've heard James Williams do. I never would have guessed it was him behind the wheel on this one.