The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)

A very rich and successful playboy amuses himself by stealing artwork, but may have met his match in a seductive detective.

Director:

John McTiernan

Writers:

Alan Trustman (story) (as Alan R. Trustman), Leslie Dixon (screenplay)

Stars:

Pierce Brosnan, Rene Russo, Denis Leary

3 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Pierce Brosnan	...	Thomas Crown
Rene Russo	...	Catherine Banning
Denis Leary	...	Michael McCann
Ben Gazzara	...	Andrew Wallace
Frankie Faison	...	Detective Paretti
Fritz Weaver	...	John Reynolds
Charles Keating	...	Friedrich Golchan
Mark Margolis	...	Heinrich Knutzhorn
Faye Dunaway	...	The Psychiatrist
Michael Lombard	...	Bobby McKinley
Bill Ambrozy	...	Proctor
Michael Bahr	...	Proctor (as Michael S. Bahr)
Robert D. Novak	...	Proctor (as Robert Novak)
Joe H. Lamb	...	Proctor (as Joe Lamb)
James Saito	...	Paul Cheng

Storyline

Self-made billionaire Thomas Crown is bored of being able to buy everything he desires. Being irresistible to women, he also does not feel any challenge in that area. But there are a few things even he can't get, therefore Thomas Crown has a seldom hobby: He steals priceless masterpieces of Art. After the theft of a famous painting from Claude Monet, the only person suspecting Thomas Crown is Catherine Banning. Her job is to get the picture back, no matter how she accomplishes her mission. Unfortunately, Catherine gets involved too deeply with Thomas to keep a professional distance to the case. Fortunately, Thomas seems to fall for her, too.

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Plot Keywords:

sex in bed | sexual desire | female rear nudity | female frontal nudity | breasts | 

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Taglines:

When You Raise The Stakes, You Heighten The Attraction.

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Genres:

Crime | Romance | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some sexuality and language

Details

Official Sites:

MGM

Country:

USA

Language:

English German Polish French

Release Date:

6 August 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Thomas Crown Affair

Filming Locations:

Reid Hall, Manhattanville College, Purchase, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$48,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$14,600,719, 8 August 1999

Gross USA:

$69,305,181

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$124,305,181

Company Credits

Production Co:

United Artists, Irish DreamTime, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

John McTiernan decided to change the heist from a bank robbery, as was seen in the original 1968 version, to an art heist, as seen in this version. McTiernan felt that at the time the film was released, audiences would be less forgiving of Thomas Crown if he staged two armed bank robberies for fun, than if he staged an unarmed art heist.

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Goofs

Catherine Banning, whilst picking holes in the investigating detectives theory, says that "the thieves prepared a load, conservatively, 1,000 lbs of paintings and 800lbs of men that we know about in a chopper with a 600lbs useful load", suggesting that this could never happen.The chopper is then correctly described as a Sikorsky S-76. However, there are four men on the job in total (800lbs), plus the load which is stated to weigh the equivalent of five men (1,000lbs). Add the helicopter pilot and you have the equivalent weight therefore of 10 men. Yet the S76 is a 12 man helicopter so should easily cope with this much weight. Catherine's figure refers to the baggage compartment capacity. They'd simply put the pictures inside the aircraft with the passengers.

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Quotes

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

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Crazy Credits

During the opening credits, the letters in the names of principal cast and crew switch same-letters (i.e., the "R's" in "Pierce Brosnan", the "E's" in "Dennis Leary").

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Connections

References The Heist (1989)

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Soundtracks

The Windmills of Your Mind
Written by Michel Legrand, Marilyn Bergman and Alan Bergman
Performed by Sting
Sting appears Courtesy of Interscope Records

User Reviews

Worth a Look

Without having seen the original version with Steve McQueen, I cannot give an opinion to which I like best. I did however enjoy this Pierce Brosnan remake. At the time of this writing the votes on this site between the two movies were only separated by a tenth of a point. It has mediocre to poor acting, but it is still quite entertaining. As a bit of trivia Faye Dunaway played Thomas Crown's shrink in this film. She also played the investigator in the earlier version, however the name of her character (Vicki Anderson) is different than the name of the investigator played by Renee Russo (Catherine Banning) in this updated version.

The story is about a rich thief named Thomas Crown (Brosnan)who steals a 100 million painting by Claude Monet, but to what end. Catherine Banning (Russo) is the investigator working for the insurance company to recover the artwork. The story has some nice twists and turns. I would recommend taking a look at it. However if you have young children you may want to see the film after lights out, because of the nude/love scenes performed by Renee Russo and Pierce Brosnan.