I’m sure I’d seen parts of this before – though perhaps it’s that the imagery is just so practically iconic, the red car and the dirty truck, that you see a couple of stills and feel the whole thing. There were certainly parts I hadn’t seen, however; like the whole inner monologue of the roadside diner, such an amazing scene right there. This is a very pared down version of Spielberg than we’ve become used to; you can feel the more action-oriented stuff like Indiana Jones, but more than anything it’s Jaws that comes to mind – you could almost say Jaws is “Duel with a shark” (the ending in particular, I’d love to do a side-by-side comparison of the whole flaming car going into the truck etc with the destruction of the shark; Dennis Weaver’s almost pitiful celebration dance atop the cliff is just beautiful).

There are a lot of movies like this, from The Vanishing to The Hitcher to Breakdown and they pretty much always work, it’s almost as reliable a startpoint for a movie as a conman story (Gone and the like notwithstanding, lol :P). This is really no exception: a tight, claustrophobic, beautifully designed chase that really leaves no doubt in your mind about the heights Spielberg would soar to. Apparently there’s a 90 minute cut; but hey, the original 75 minute TV cut worked fine for me this time, and at that length, really, I should be ashamed as a film fan for taking so long to give it my attention.

I’m not sure I got as much out of this as some, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t more gripped from start to finish than I was during pretty much any given movie of the past year (okay, maybe 30 Days just pips it). The chase here is extraordinarily visceral, delivering bucketloads of the kind of jumpy shock most movies can lay claim to just a handful of with just about every gunshot and jolt having an impact. I hope that if this movie does get the Oscar nominations everyone’s buzzing about, it’s included in the sound categories too.

I guess I’ve got to be honest and say if there’s a reason I’m left a little empty by the movie, it’s ‘cos it lacks two things which, it you look at my faves, are kind of important to me: heart and music. So it’s not the movie’s fault at all as these two absences are highly deliberate. But it’s very rare a movie without one or both those things can do a thing for me – whereas this one did plenty – so don’t be discouraged by my 4-star rating. Though this movie comes close to that box of movies last year that were technically perfect but delivered nothing “beyond” for me, it never quite gets in.

Javier Bardem is one of the creepiest killers ever to walk the screen and his modus operandi is truly the stuff of nightmares (it’s when you see him open doors with it that makes it even worse). There’s plenty here to bring me back for a second viewing, when I’m sure it might grow on me just as Fargo (which I didn’t get at all on the first view) did. Right now, I do think calling it the Coens’ “best ever!” is a bit of a stretch – I mean, come on, they had about a decade long string of instant modern classics up to Fargo – but it is eons above Ladykillers and Intolerable Cruelty.

I’ve loved this movie from the first time I saw it, but like Chicago which I watched just before this viewing, it’s one of those movies I always forget about. It just doesn’t seem cool to praise this movie too much, even though it’s Spielberg, it’s like, too glossy… maybe it’s just a personal prejudice – whatever, if it is… I don’t get it either.

The brilliant title sequence totally belies the heaviness of some of this film, and shows how personal Spielberg might get in his future movies, particularly one I recently read about which he describes as being very autobiographical. Leonardo Di Caprio plays the small but crucial age range of Frank Abagnale perfectly… even when he’s beginning to play it cool, he still shows the child when it goes wrong, absolute fear, and it’s amazing how much he looks as he looked in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, his break-out movie nearly a decade earlier, when he’s playing Frank at his youngest. Gilbert Grape has a much quirkier performance which is probably why Di Caprio was nominated for the Oscar, but this performance is equally brilliant, showing a real knack for comedy but with real intensity, in the fear already mentioned and in particular the last scene on the plane back to America, his reaction to the news I won’t mention for fear of spoilers.

Christopher Walken and Tom Hanks also deliver great performances, both portraying the honest guys… while Frank goes off in the best hotel suites, the best jobs, the best girls, never being honest, these two are the severe contrast – Walken incessantly pursued by the IRS, not knowing what a chilled salad fork is; Hanks ever humiliated by the 17-year-old fugitive, eating chinese food, perceived as a grinch by his colleagues, withered Christmas tree in the background. I love the Christmas tree… it’s one among many major contrasts which are shown between the lucrative criminal and the practically poverty-stricken pursuers, but it’s my favourite. It’s so sad, so real, but also, so funny.

John Williams’ score is one of his best. The “Recollections” theme on a lone saxophone always instantly makes me want to cry… I can’t explain it, I’ve studied music theory but forgotten it and I’m glad – music is something I love to listen to, perform, and compose, but I never want to explain it or its effect. All I can say is, it makes me cry.

The opening and closing of the movie, too, contrast with this bitter-sweetness. The TV show introduction, showing three people posing as Frank, one the real Frank, the goal of the show to determine which is real. This is perfectly done, Frank seemingly trying to look the liar, blinking like the guy next to him while the guy next to him tries desperately not to blink when telling “the truth”. And the closing titles, describing what happened to Frank afterwards, now earning millions for cheques he designed for Fortune 500 companies… it’s like the current hacker situation, that complex issue, the way evil can sometimes lead to good. It just really says how mad the world can be. My take anyway