I gave this movie a 9 on IMDB but there's no way to post 4.5 so I'll err upwards because this movie is great - and well worth watching and rewatching.

I'm not going to rehash the awesome plot (truth!), great screenplay, and incredible acting, because that's all over this page. But my opinion:

***SPOILER AHEAD***

There's more substance they could have added. That's why I rated 9 and not 10. But standing on its own, this movie is so well-done.
It doesn't stick to the true story 100%. The one point I don't like is that he gets engaged to a girl, when in reality it was a simpler relationship.
It could have been done equally well as a darker drama, or a longer adventure. Spielberg chose to focus on these few years of Abagnall's life so there automatically is a certain lightness that comes from lacking the bigger picture. But in its own merit, this movie is almost fun to watch. Despite the constant danger of discovery and deception, Frank lives optimistically and hopefully. That makes this movie easy to want to return to.

Altogether, I loved this film.

Much of this movie is factual, and those parts that are more Hollywood are done tastefully in order to fill in missing detail. For instance, Frank never saw his father again after he left home, but he did in the movie. The fact is, Frank was always trying to please his father and if you can put up with some of this divergence from absolute fact, the movie tells the story with deep feeling. Same for detective Hanratty. He's more of a composite of multiple detectives, and perhaps this is more egregious. But overall, this movie is engaging, and you come away with a concept of his amazing talent. Wonderfully played by Leonardo DeCaprio and Christopher Walken, I bought this movie because it was one of those movies I can watch over again.

I had a very difficult time getting into the movie. Deception and lying were rampant in the first fifteen minutes of the movie. I was watching with family and became very uncomfortable at the unexpected sex scene that jumped out at us. I had to turn it off after that. This is NOT a family movie.

This was a great movie. It had some sexual scenes that you might want to skip over if you are watching it with teenagers, but the plot and the character development was phenomenal. You gain sympathy for Frank even as he is defrauding banks out of millions of dollars and manipulating good people, because you know he is only doing it to run away from the pain of his parents' divorce. And as Frank lies again and again and again, suffering the isolation that naturally results from such behavior, he begins to understand why truth matters, and he finds a father figure in Handratty, the FBI agent who is trying to capture him. Although Handratty is committed to pursuing justice, he sincerely loves Frank and is able to help him to heal from the pain that he has spent so many years fleeing from. Yes, there were some sexual scenes, but it was a true story worth telling and a story well told.

It is hard to believe that someone can become so "good" at being a conman in such a short amount of time. You'd think it would take a decade or more. Then counterfeiting? Di Caprio is an excellent actor and makes the main character believable. Then there's Tom Hanks, also excellent, that tops off the cast. Between the two and the subject matter, you'll stay engaged the whole time. A very good viewing experience.

The Abagnales divorce because of cheating. They ask Frank Jr. to pick a side, and he does. He picks his dad. Frank takes his father's con-man lifestyle and turns it up to eleven, partly to run away from trouble, and partly to give his dad his Cadillac back. Life has been unfair to him--he's lost his business, his reputation and his wife. Except that as Frank spends 4 years fleeing an exuberantly filmed ticker tape parade of phony checks, he realizes that his dad was the cheater. You don't want to see it because he's so loving, but his dad charmed and manipulated the world before it ever had a chance to be fair.

Frank is chased by the FBI throughout the movie, but his conflicts are all internal: the excitement of lying and the longing to be honest; the joy of creativity and the loneliness of living a lie.

(Frank and Agent Handratty, both alone in the dark on Christmas Eve, when Frank tells him honestly where he is, and Handratty says, "you don't have anyone else to call.")

People watch this movie and say they loved it--but not because it was any good! Those people are wrong. This is one of the best movies ever made. Every performance is filled with charm and sincerity. The score is lively and clever but never manipulative. The cinematography is drop dead gorgeous. This movie is hosed down in light and color. It's like light and color making out for two and a half hours.

Mostly, the power of this movie comes from the fact that Frank grows up while pretending to be a grownup, so all his intense coming-of-age moments are tinged with nostalgia even as he's experiencing them for the first time. No one is surprised that Spielberg does that with perfect sincerity. You might be surprised that he also makes it funny.

Also, that era in the sixties that we all know was corrupt and broken inside, just underneath its veneer of side parts and big cars? That's put across with honesty, yet without any cynicism or irony. That a movie could feel so lighthearted while doing all that is practically miraculous.

Great movie! I had heard this was a great movie, but never sat down to watch it. What I got out of the movie, is completely different than what my husband did. My husband is a pilot, and he would take parts of the movie and say this wouldn't happen and that wouldn't happen (and of course this movie was in the time of the 60's so it would NOT happen now ) and I looked at it from a mother's stand point. Every KNOWN actor in this movie did an excellent job and you get lost in the characters immediately. It make you laugh and be sad all at the same time. My older teens watched with us, and I did not feel too uncomfortable having them watch it with us; there are a couple of scenes where I said "great" sarcastically as I am a conservative person who does not normally mix watch PG 13 movies or R rated movies with my teens.

The movie is great. The cast is superb and the story line is amazing. Very enjoyable.

Implications: FBI is incompetent as well as many other institutions, which is scare, and, equally distressing, banks and the government will set you free, never mind justice, and pay you millions even if you defrauded them at the outset.