Con Air

Although it runs a quarter-hour too long—Spielberg himself can't escape treating his films as events—Catch Me If You Can is the director's lightest-hearted work since Raiders of the Lost Ark.And in recapturing an earlier sense of exuberance, it also marks the return from the living dead of Leonardo DiCaprio, who, before he washed up on The Beach as an international teen idol, was a screen actor to be reckoned with. A young-faced 28, he looks too old to be playing a 16-year-old kid, but what at first seems like miscasting eventually proves to be a smart choice, for part of Frank's success lies in looking older than he actually is. As an actor DiCaprio has long been known for his ardor, not to mention his tiresome self-seriousness, but working for Spielberg, he plays his scenes with a comic deftness I thought he didn't have in him. At once sweet and sly, naive and scheming, he makes Frank the most dashing teenage boy who ever flattered a girl in braces.

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN was directed by STEVEN SPIELBERG; written by JEFF NATHANSON; and produced by WALTER PARKES.