Seeing the 'inspired by' credit at the start of a film usually has the alarm bells sounding. It means the truth of the story is not quite stranger than fiction, at least not in Hollywood's eyes. But in the case of confidence trickster Frank W Abagnale Jnr, the director's tweaking can't be more than superficial, simply because the main character's real life has been so astounding.

From the first frame - set against a John Williams jazzed-up soundtrack that harks back to the best of Henry Mancini and Quincy Jones - you can almost feel Steven Spielberg and his main star Leonardo DiCaprio being let off the chain, such is the feeling of fun-loving abandon in Catch Me If You Can.

Abagnale (DiCaprio) is a young man whose family falls apart so, following somewhat in his father's (Christopher Walken) footsteps, he decides to go it alone and rely on his rather impressive charm to get by. It starts badly but soon he has the whole of America, and most of the women in it, fooled as he in turn poses as pilot, doctor and lawyer. Hot on his heels is FBI operative Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks, in horn-rimmed specs to remind us he's a bit of straight), and so we follow the chase.

It's fast and glamorous in a nostalgic way for that bright, always-optimistic 1960s look and lifestyle, and thoroughly entertaining. DiCaprio reminds us of the talent that comes to him so naturally, while Hanks furthers his claim on the title of this generation's James Stewart.

As with any Spielberg production, issues of family are central to all the characters' motivation - and the director cannot resist the temptation to lay it on a bit thick. But just when you start to feel bogged down, you are whisked away into the action again - thankfully - so the heaviness doesn't linger.

It's a fair measure of Spielberg's story-telling skills - and the grace and guile of his lead actors - that you forget to care that our hero ends up being that most loathed of cinematic - and crime - creations: a dirty rat who turns against his own kind.

Catch Me If You Can opens today.