Film Review - The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)

A remake of the 1968 film which starred Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway (who also appears in this remake) and directed by John McTiernan, the story here sees Thomas Crown (Pierce Brosnan) hijacking a priceless Monet painting said to be worth 100 million dollars which catches the eye of the Insurance Officer assigned to the case named Catherine Banning played by Rene Russo.

I really had fun with this version of Thomas Crown and there are three people responsible for this:

- The first is John McTiernan himself and he is clearly having a ball here as he keeps a very firm hand on the whip and gives the film a real sense of movement and as a result there isn't a wasted frame of film here at all and it's nice to see him cut loose like this in the way that he did in Predator, Die Hard and the Hunt for Red October and it's a big big shame Brosnan didn't recruit him to direct Die Another Day as I can only imagine how much better that film might have been with a proper action director in the captains chair.

- Speaking of Brosnan, he is the 2nd reason this film works very well as he is so smooth and slick and charming here that I couldn't help but think "Why didn't the post Goldeneye James Bond films he made capture this quality" as the post GE Bond films just saw him going through the motions whereas here he gives a great performance.

- And lastly I have to talk about Russo who is just wonderful in this role and just with a few facial expressions gives you so much in terms of how her character is feeling in that particular moment and she is also every inch Brosnan's equal in the mind games the two characters play with each other, it was such a shame to see her so criminally wasted in the recent Thor movies.

Sadly however the film's second half is not as strong as the first and at times it gets a little convoluted and lost in itself in terms of what is going on and although it wraps itself up well a part of me would have liked a more clear cut way there.

But hey that's only a quibble compared to the fun on show here and fun I had whilst watching it, 3 out of 5.