Catch Me If You can

Where would entertainment today be without Beverly Hills 90210? The courageous stunt casting of actors in their late 20's and early 30's has given casting directors everywhere the freedom to boldly to cast virtually anyone in the role of a 16 year old boy or girl.
And thus we have Catch Me if You Can, a film asking it's audience to believe a then 28 year old Leonardo DiCaprio as a 16 year old boy. Of course the film itself is highly entertaining and moves at brisk pace for being over 2 hours long. But watching it again I find myself continually reminding myself that the character Leo is playing is supposed to be a teenager and at times it feels distracting.
Then I realized that that was likely the director Steven Spielberg's intent. The film is a memoir of one of our countries less infamous criminals. Frank Abagnale Jr. is a 16 year old run away who finds that the easiest way to survive is through counterfeiting checks while pretending to be a number of things including an airline pilot and a doctor. By the age of 18 Frank had stolen millions of dollars through various forms of fraud. On several occasions he managed to slip past the FBI agents who were given the task of apprehending him before finally being captured in France and eventually being brought back to the United States.
The importance of Leo being significantly older than the character he played is that the character he played lived in such a manor that those around him believed he was significantly older than his actual age. Sure, you could argue that Leo was only casted because he helps bring in box office grosses, but I think Spielberg understood that at the heart of the Frank Abagnale Jr character was a man with the confidence and charm to convince otherwise intelligent people that he was actually much older than his real age. I don't know how long it takes to be an airline pilot, but I've heard that being a doctor requires many years of higher education and yet the people Frank meets have no problem believing he is old enough to have achieved a degree in medicine. When you think about it, the exploits of Frank are extraordinary and it makes sense that telling his story would require an older actor playing the part in order for it to be convincing.
Beyond the work of Leo the film soars on the strengths of it's remaining cast members. Tom Hanks is at the top of his game as Carl Hanratty, the FBI agent in charge of tracking down Frank and Christopher Walken is terrific in an academy award nominated performance as Frank's father. Likewise, Spielberg manages the material with a focus on the fun rather than the fiend that was Frank Abagnale Jr. He is a criminal, but not in the sense that he is a villain and Spielberg handles this fact extremely well.
This is one of my films and while it's very enjoyable it's one that I had not seen in awhile. I remember when the film was first released there was still some lingering anti-Leo sentiment out there following the success of Titanic. But, along with Gangs of New York, the release of Catch Me If You Can helped to swing Leo back to being one of the most respected actors of his generation. This film showed that Leo is more a pretty face, but instead a formidable actor whose capable of taking on a multitude of roles with this one being one of my favorites.