Critic Reviews
75
Metascore
Generally Favorable
positive
35(90%)
mixed
4(10%)
negative
0(0%)
Showing 39 Critic Reviews
100
Part of Spielberg's skill as a filmmaker comes in choosing the right collaborators. Janusz Kaminski's gorgeous cinematography, Michael Kahn's graceful editing, Jeff Nathanson's clever script, and John Williams' score all work well in unison, but the film's masterstroke is the casting of Walken as DiCaprio's utterly decent father.
100
It's brilliantly acted. But best of all, it's brilliantly made.
91
It's the most charming and buoyant film Spielberg's ever made.
90
Results in about the nicest movie you could ask for at the holidays: a gently funny, sweetly adventurous film that makes you feel genuinely good, that is to say, entirely unconned by false sentiment or sharp, overmanipulative Hollywood practices.
90
Supremely entertaining.
90
Never less than engaging; all that’s missing is a proper crescendo. The picture moves along briskly, even at two and a half hours, but it seems to be running on cruise control.
89
Everything about this swift and gorgeous and tremendously enjoyable film is played out in a rush of staccato edits, crisp performances, and charmingly giddy subplots that coalesce into Spielberg's most purely entertaining movie in years.
88
Nothing if not a celebration of our willingness to be gulled by life's charming strangers.
80
Feels more like The Bill Clinton Story than "Primary Colors" (1998). It's a paean to naughty boys who dream of potency and become enraptured by their own scams -- a great American archetype.
80
Based on the real-life exploits of Frank W. Abagnale but played more for myth than believability.
