The Thomas Crown Affair

• Title:  The Thomas Crown Affair
• Director:  John McTiernan
• Date:  1999
• Studio:  MGM
• Genre:  Romance, Action
• Cast:  Pierce Brosnan, Rene Russo, Denis Leary, Faye Dunaway
• Format:  Color, Widescreen
• DVD Format:  R1, NTSC

"Regret is usually a waste of time. As is gloating. Have you figured out what you're gonna' say to your board when they learn that you paid me $30 Million more than others were offering?" - Thomas Crown

"It's obvious that you like men, but you never keep any of them around very long, either." - Thomas Crown

"Oh, well, men make women messy." - Catherine

"You really think there's happy ever after for people like us?" - Catherine

The Thomas Crown Affair is a fun, romantic, romp - in both senses of the world. Thomas Crown (Pierce Brosnan) is a very successful and rich businessman who has made his multi-billion dollar fortune by acquiring other businesses, then selling them off. The realities of such a source of income aren't explored - basically, he's rich, successful, lonely, and bored.

Catherine Banning (Rene Russo) is a highly successful insurance investigator and bounty hunter. She makes her considerable fortune collecting a portion of the recovery fee from high stakes art theft recovery.

Michael McCann (Denis Leary) is a cop, who - we find at the end of the film - would rather work homicides, or help abused women and kids then worry about a multi-million dollar art theft.

The film opens with Crown starring at a painting of haystacks in the Impressionist wing of a large unnamed art museum in New York. He apparently does this a lot, as one of the museum guards recognizes him and the two also make small talk. Meanwhile, the loading dock workers are surprised when a large crate is delivered. They are expecting an Egyptian sarcophagus, but instead a large Greek horse sculpture was delivered instead. Soon, a group of men break out of the horse and attempt to steal paintings from the museum. They are caught, but an investigation quickly indicates that a Monet, worth $100,000 million dollars is now missing from the museum. The Monet will be the McGuffin of the film - it also brings together the main characters.

Leary's Mike McCann, is a tough, wisecracking, swearing, New York City cop who would rather investigate a murder or do anything else other than investigate an art theft. But he's called in, and his initial sweep of the Impressionist wing, isn't successful - either in finding the missing Monet, nor in understanding how the crime occurred or what the thieves were trying to accomplish. But even Mike, appreciates the slightly twisted humor of the Trojan Horse being used to gain access to the museum.

During his initial investigation, Catherine arrives. Much more experienced in investigating art thefts - she corrects nearly every assumption Mike's made. They spark some. It's Catherine, who realizes that the showy and unsuccessful attempted theft was a distraction, so the Monet could be stolen by someone else - and she and Mike immediately suspect Crown.

The resulting cat-and-mouse game has Catherine and Mike attempting to catch Crown and get the Monet back. This is complicated by Crown's romantic pursuit of Catherine. Mike sees Crown's interest as a way for him to keep her off-balance so he doesn't get caught. Mike is also jealous of Crown - not necessarily simply his money and success, but he would like to become romantically involved with Catherine himself - though he knows she wouldn't be interested in a plain, blue-collar, cop like him, especially when she could easily have a rich, successful, businessman like Crown.

Crown romantically pursues Catherine - dancing with her in a club, taking her home for a steamy session of sex, taking her for a flying lesson in his glider, and then taking her away for a weekend to his Caribbean Island get away. Their romance is intercut with the investigation by both the police and Catherine of the art theft. On Crown's side, his romance is intercut with sessions with his psychologist, played by Faye Dunaway. She points out his deep distrust of women.

Trust will be a re-occurring theme of the film. Can two extremely rich people really trust someone new? Especially when that person may have a reason to not be trusted? Catherine has trouble trusting Crown because not only did he probably steal the Monet - but he may be only using her affection to get away with the crime. For his part, Thomas Crown has reason to not trust Catherine - after all, she could find evidence of his illegal activities - and have him arrested.

The Thomas Crown Affair  is stylish, smart, bold, romantic, and steamy. The music is wonderful, though my (very cheap) copy seems to be missing some of the music. Setting the story firmly in the art world gives it a gloss that a similar romantic film in another setting wouldn't have. There's some wonderful direction of the initial theft, and Crown's crazy plan to return the Monet - let's just say, The Purloined Letter, and leave it at that. Brosnan is sexy, and plays his smart, rags-to-riches character well. Russo is also sexy and smart.

I enjoyed seeing this film again. It's more of a romance than a caper film - the stolen Monet really is no more than a McGuffin. Russo has excellent chemistry with both Crown and Mike. And the film has the last minute twist-that-isn't-really-unexpected that works for this type of romantic film. Overall, it's a great role for Brosnan, and I wish he would make more of this type of romantic film.

The Thomas Crown Affair is a remake of the film of the same name from 1968 starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. In my opinion, and I'm sure a lot of people would disagree with me - the modern film is better. Personally, I really dislike Steve McQueen - he gives me the creeps, and he's so icy and cold. McQueen's the type of actor I constantly expect in his roles to turn out to be a serial killer or something, and I just cannot watch him. Dunaway is also a cold actress, and I just can't see her playing a romantic role well (though in the 1960s, icy blondes were popular in romantic and suspense films.) Brosnan is much better as a romantic hero - and he gives Crown the depth of someone who is emotionally closed off, and what that costs him. Russo is the exact opposite of cold. Leary adds to the plot, giving the 1999 film a much more modern feeling.

Recommendation:  See it!

Rating: 3 out of 5 (Slightly predictable)

Next film:  The Three Musketeers (1993)