<P>The film only scratches the surface of why conmen do what they do.</P>

The film only scratches the surface of why conmen do what they do.

Young Frank is traumatised by the financial troubles of his father, Christopher Walken, who in 1963 is being investigated by the IRS for tax fraud. The subsequent divorce of his parents, his mother is played by French star Nathalie Baye, ends his childhood and he runs away at the age of sixteen heading for a life living on his wits. He finds he\'s good at pretending to be what he\'s not - a relief teacher to start, an airline pilot, a doctor, a lawyer, and along the way he picks up the skills of forging cheques. Dogging his footsteps is FBI agent Carl Hanratty, Tom Hanks. The two get awfully close sometimes. This is one of those stories that\'s told from the outside and never really gets within. So while you can marvel at all the situations that Frank gets away with, they\'re pretty unbelievable and even the more na?ve times of the 1960\'s is not brought into the equation. It\'s a fairly uninspired performance from Leonardo DiCaprio, admittedly it\'s no easy task to flesh out a character who wants to be so elusive all the time. Tom Hanks adds another non-charismatic role to his CV with this, but he does it well. I\'m not particularly interested in what conmen do, I\'m more interested in why they do it, and this film only scratches the surface. Spielberg delivers competently as always.