There is a real feeling of the sixties here, with pilots being heroes, the FBI more interested (initially) in the bigger fish, and the family system America cherished so much now beginning to fall apart. Hank's stoic, worn FBI agent is a perfect example of where it's all gone wrong. Now a slave to his desk, his family have left him and he rarely sees his daughter. Indeed, in his mind his daughter's still the same age she was when his wife left him, although 9 years have passed. There is a striking coming together of chaser and chasee upon the realisation that, on Christmas eve, the only people the can really call is each other. Frank is driven by his loneliness, the dispair of feeling invisible. He wants to be caught. To this end, Di Crapio gives one of his more solid performances. He plays the confident as well as he does the desperate, and at one point the almost insane. It's ironic that, toward the end of the chase, the only person Frank trusts is the FBI agent chasing him.

Strangely for a movie, neither character is likeable until toward the end of the movie. Frank's cockiness and, well, criminality grate so very much, and lets face it, his smirk is just irritating. Carl is a dour and weather beaten man. He has no sense of humour, and work is all he has. Toward the end of the movie, however, as Carl catches Frank, the characters evolve. It's as if these two are soulmates of sorts, and coming together the find a need for each other and a fulfilment. Frank makes his first true friend, and Carl finds someone who shares his passion for bank fraud.