Tom Hanks' character Carl Hanratty in the movie "Catch Me If You Can" has a New England accent that is either very, very good or really horrible.

It's hard to tell.

It's also hard to figure out exactly what part of New England he is supposed to be from.

As it turns out, it's Boston, but it's not the Bean Town accent we're used to hearing. Which may be because it is very authentic -- or not, according to Gillian Lane-Plescia of Preston, a dialogue coach who has produced dialogue tapes and works with theater companies in Connecticut and throughout the country,

"There are a lot of different Boston accents," Lane-Plescia says. "There is the old-fashioned Brahmin accent, Julia Childs, that is now out of date.

"There is also the Kennedy version of that accent, which is so distinct that it is known as Kennedyesque.

"Then there are more blue-collar accents and a South Boston accent. They are all usually different from each other but also have a lot in common."

While some actors are very good at accents -- such as Meryl Streep -- others are decidedly not -- a la Kevin Costner in "Thirteen Days."

"Accents are really hard," Lane-Plescia says. "Not all actors can do them. You have to have a good ear, like Streep, and then you have to really work at it."

In a recent interview, Hanks had this to say about his accent:

"Very early on, there was a trial that was on Court TV a lot, and one of the attorneys was from Boston, and Steven [Spielberg] sent me over the tape of this guy. He said, 'What would you think about doing a dialect?' I said, 'I don't know; I don't have any organic model.' And he sent this thing over to me, and I took one look and said, 'This guy's Carl Hanratty.'

"So I got together with Jessica Drake [dialogue coach], who I've worked with many times before. It's actually a pretty mundane process until you get to the point where you are really going to think and operate in the dialect."

Lane-Plescia says that when she is working with an actor, she tries to get some tape together of genuine accents, people in that line of business, with the same education. Then she works with the actor to develop the right sound, the right rhythm and cadence.

"I only send an audiotape," Lane-Plescia says, "never video, because that's a different experience."

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