~ Cast / Crew ~

Starring : Pierce Brosnan, Rene Russo, Denis Leary
Director : John McTiernan
Producers : Pierce Brosnan, Beau St. Clair
Certificate : 15

~ Story ~

Warning: If you don’t want to me to spoil the story line for you, then read the first six paragraphs only.

Thomas Crown (Pierce Brosnan) plays the part of a self-made billionaire who seems to be in search for more challenge in his life and we seem him making silly bets on a game of golf with impossible odds, resulting in him losing $100,000. We also seem him wreck an expensive yacht, yet he seems totally un-phased by it!

The film is largely centred around New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art where he visits regularly, sitting in the same spot admiring one of the less favoured paintings. This turns about to be a ploy to detract from the fact that he is scheming up a way to steal $100 million Monet which is also in the same gallery and this is all unbeknown to the viewer at this stage.

We see cameo appearances from Thomas’s psychologist (Faye Dunaway) throughout the film, which appears to be somewhat of pointless role apart from the fact that Thomas has an unhealthy mind in respects to stealing the painting for the thrill of it.

Now comes the action where a group of hired henchman who happen to be Russian, break security and tamper with the security systems and disguise themselves as the gallery stewards. After some action between the robbers and the real stewards, the robbers are taken into custody whilst Thomas has obtained the Monet painting.

Thomas plays the part of the good citizen and lends the gallery a painting from his own collection to fill the void where the Monet once hung. An obvious measure to make him the least likely suspect!

In walks Catherine Banning (Rene Russo) who represents an insurance company that stands to lose a lot of money if the painting is not recovered. Working alongside the NYPD and detective Michael McCann (Denis Leary), she narrows the suspects down to one: ‘Thomas Crown’ much to the amazement of detective McCann. It now becomes Catherine’s task to prove his guilt.

After many cat and mouse games between the too of them, she finds herself becoming a little too close to Thomas and they both fall in love. Lots of innuendo takes place at various places from here after, at one particular moment at the gallery, he asks if she was take a painting, which one would it be!

Thomas at this stage reveals that he had taken the painting, but Catherine’s crusade to uncover the truth does not end here, she continues to question Thomas for weeks whilst dating him until she catches him with another woman.

Thomas explains to Catherine that it is not what she thinks and asks her to come away with him. He then reveals that he is going to put the painting back the following day. He gives Catherine two options at this point, to trust him and come away otherwise inform the NYPD of his intentions and arrange for him to be apprehended.

Catherine not trusting Thomas decides to inform the NYPD and the following day we see the NYPD and Catherine sat in the CCTV room waiting for Thomas to arrive. From here on in we are entertained with a comical scene where-by Thomas has organised many men to dress the same as him and to have the same of style of brief-case, after some frantic chases and switching of brief cases, the painting is returned.

It is know that we realise that the painting was there all along. Thomas had managed to have somebody paint over the top of the original painting and when the sprinklers went off, the new paint had been washed off. Suddenly they look around and find that one of the other paintings had been taken, in fact the painting that Catherine said that she would like!

Shortly after this fiasco Catherine learns the truth, the other woman is the daughter of a convicted painting forger, who is also in the business of forgeries. Catherine realizes the mistake that she has made and goes to the ferry port to find Thomas. Thomas however is gone by this point, but there is man waiting for her to hand her something. She opened up the case to find the painting.

So now Catherine’s job is finished, the Monet has been recovered. She journeys back home on an aeroplane and breaks out into tears because of the realisation that she has lost the man that she loves. A man from the seat behind her hands her a tissue to dry her eyes and as she looks around, she is flabbergasted, it is Thomas who is sat in the chair behind.

~ Characters / Performances ~

When I picked up this film, I was expecting an action packed thriller with Pierce Brosnan carrying out numerous death defying stunts just like the bond films, however, this is not what the film is about. Pierce does however play the part of Thomas Crown extremely well – his part is something that I imagine will appeal to the ladies as he is rather suave and charismatic and in true bond style, he gets the girl. Pierce also had a hand in producing the film, so another feather in the cap for him.

Rene Russo plays the part of the intelligent and attractive insurance company representative who also plays a good part as an ascertive young woman who is focused on uncovering the mysteries of the crime and would appear to go to extreme lengths to achieve her goals.

There are love scenes between these two and plenty of bare bum and boob shots, hence the 15 rating. Personally, I don’t believe that the chemistry was right between them. I would have preferred somebody like Sharon Stone to play the part of Catherine.

I was waiting in anticipation to see what part Denis Leary was to play in this film, but was somewhat disappointed. I remember Denis Leary as the comedian who sung the song “asshole” and featured in the films Wag the Dog, Suicide Kings, Two if by Sea, Neon Bilble and The Ref. However, in the film, he played a straight-faced cop and nothing more.

Faye Dunaway also featured in the film and had a cameo role as Thomas Crown’s psychologist. I also discovered that Faye played the role of Catherine in the 1968 original of the film and starred alongside Steve McQueen who played the part of Thomas Crown.

~ Soundtrack ~

The following music is in the film:

1. Windmills Of Your Mind – Sting
2. Sinneman – Nina Simone
3. Everything (Is Never Quite Enough) – Wasis Diop
4. Caban’la Ka Kratchie – Georges Fordant
5. B&W x 5 – Bill Conti
6. Never Change – Bill Conti
7. Mess Ms. Banning – Bill Conti
8. Goodnight/Breaking & Entering – Bill Conti
9. Glider Pt. 1 – Bill Conti
10. Glider Pt. 2 – Bill Conti
11. Cocktails – Bill Conti
12. Quick Exit – Bill Conti

The music was instrumental in the main and quite fitting to each of the scenes, what I will say is that the last track is so appropriate to the ending of the film. These tracks are also available in the shops. I would say that track 3 is my favourite.

~ Summary ~

A great story-line that will keep you thinking and guessing throughout. The casting was good, however there were only two key characters in the film. There were hardly any special effects in the film, but in a film like this, fancy effects would probably not add much value. Before watching this film I was unaware that this was a remake of the 1968 original and now I would like to watch the original.

I would recommend watching this film as it does have a good story-line, probably best to hire it from you local video rental shop.

Final rating 4/5