That old phrase “truth is stranger than fiction� bears the scuffs and dog-ears of much overuse for very good reason. If you need further proof, then simply watch Catch Me if You Can and then amortise its events out with the fact that it’s based on the true story of a youth named Frank Abagnale Jr. Cutting a fraudulent swathe through early ‘60s America – and beyond, at various times he posed as a French teacher, PanAm pilot, chief resident paediatrician and even assistant attorney general of Louisiana. And all before he got the key to the door…

It's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it...

Frank is portrayed here by Leonardo DiCaprio, but don’t let that put you off – he actually handles his role with a certain appealing glee that suits it down to the ground. Essentially a quite classic cat and mouse kind of tale, we’re privy to some background Abagnale family information and possible inspirations for Frank’s trip into massive deception before things truly get underway. His former serviceman, now businessman father is in substantially deep doo-doo with the IRS, while his French mother is sharing the love around which eventually leads to a divorce – whereby Frank does what all responsible young lads would do, he hightails it out of there. Finding little in the way of financial independence by being himself, he soon concocts a life as a pilot – one of the most respected occupations of the time - and the cheques start bouncing around the US more often than Boeing 707s have had landings as he embarks upon quite the little James Bond-styled existence.

But soon the FBI are on his trail, most notably their man in charge of bank fraud in Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks, brilliant as usual). The two duck and dodge around the US, with near misses and close calls aplenty, as Abagnale Jr. continues his wave of deceit, breaking banks, hearts and more along the way, and making cucumbers look decidedly toasty in comparison to himself.

Oh the humanity!

Described as the youngest and most daring conman in US history, Abagnale Jr.’s tale as told here by some young chancer of a director named Steven Spielberg manages to be an engaging little adventure. What really fascinates is the air of devil-may-care attitude surrounding young Frank, for whilst undeniably having the smarts in the sneaky department, there’s also a certain impression of happenstance in the way he goes about accomplishing his various nefarious escapades – his quick thinking being his greatest asset. But underlying the rampant bravado there is also the simple fact that Frank is still a teenager – one who saw his happy, nuclear family existence go “phut!� before his very eyes – and he has the baggage that afflicts most anybody of such an age struggling against his outward appearance of having confidence to burn. Consequently the almost father and son-like relationship that develops between he and his pursuer in Hanratty is one of this film’s greatest strengths, touching on the actual loneliness that Frank is experiencing after losing his family unit, despite his seemingly having it all.

Regardless of this suggesting a certain profundity to proceedings, Catch Me if You Can is still very much an in one eye and out the other popcorn flick, a very entertaining example of Spielberg dispensing with all that gravitas stuff for a change and just hanging loose a bit. At over two hours some may find things have a slightly pedestrian pace at times, although with adept performances and nothing much in the way of flab this reviewer found herself completely engrossed from go to woe.

Interestingly Spielberg didn’t originally intend to direct, rather it happened by default after delays securing Leonardo (due to Gangs of New York) threw all manner of things up in the air – in fact James Gandolfini was originally penned in to fill what eventually became Hanks’ role.

As is Spielberg’s wont, a 1.78:1 transfer (anamorphically enhanced, of course) is on offer, seemingly with the matte opened up ever so slightly from the cinematic version which was 1.85:1. Other than a touch of shimmer on the opening credits and the odd slight case of aliasing it’s quite the stunning transfer, too, highlighting director of photography Janusz Kaminski’s tendency towards playing with light and colouring for what is a delightfully, somewhat retro-looking picture which deftly conjures up thoughts of the fondue set and Burt Bacharach riddled era the film is set in. There is a touch of grain here and there, but it’s never of overwhelming consequence, shadow detail manages to be good and the layer change is neatly tucked away mid-scene almost halfway through the film, skating by scarcely detected. What a shame it's all messed up somewhat by the removal of location and other titles from the original film, replaced by a player-generated subtitle stream which sits partially in and partially out of the film's frame (well, on a standard 4:3 telly). We've said it before and we'll say it again, this is lame, dumb, thoroughly annoying and causes points to be deducted.

At least Universal are giving us more and more DTS mixes of late, however, and they really should be applauded for it. Along with this 5.1 example there is also a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, and as much as some prattle on about “crystalline� this and “tighter� that when it comes to DTS, there’s virtually nothing to tell the two apart. Those craving an over the top surround mix with lashings of subwoofwoof usage will be disappointed, for the extra speakers are used sparingly – but effectively when present – to add substance to the odd airport location or fleet of Citroens. Most importantly, dialogue comes through loud and clear at all times and is perfectly synched to the vision. As for the soundtrack, where there’s a Spielberg there’s a John Williams, however he gets to change tack a bit from his more predictable fare here with a series of compositions that have more of a snappy jazz influence, and fit the ‘60s vibe to a tee. Aiding this is a vast selection of popular songs, including tracks from Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, Dusty Springfield, The Chiffons, The Kinks, Nat King Cole and Frankie Sinatra. Oh, and The Girl From Ipanema is in there somewhere, too…

Extras? Hahahahahahahahaha… still, at least the menus, based on the film’s opening credits, are decidedly natty. Naturally we expect the eventual retail version will have all manner of bonus goodies for us to fiddle about with.

In all, Catch Me if You Can is purely an example of good, old fashioned cinematic entertainment, and as such is well worth catching yourself for a wonderful way to divert reality for a couple of hours.

To the moon!