10:30 PM. Chicago Institute of Art. Under the cover of darkness, Daniel flies me in a helicopter over the rooftop, I strap myself to the rope and rappel down. I jog over to the skylight and examine each frame. At the very end of the room it hangs: ‘Nighthawks’. I take my glass cutter and create a hole just big enough then slowly swing down to the floor. Laser beams activate and I use every known and unknown yoga position to navigate myself to the painting without getting caught. I have to be cautious not to cause a hip injury, my physical therapist has been very clear about that. I carefully lift the frame and head back to the rope when the sole of my shoe crosses the laser. Alarms deafen me as I struggle to climb up the rope. Upon escape, five policemen stand near the hole and aim their guns. I’m going away for a long time.
‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ has always appealed to me as a sophisticated upper-class piece of fiction. There’s something about the mischievous genius of Crown being able to steal a priceless artwork with such minimal effort. The classic cat-and-mouse duel of wits as he tries to outsmart a seductive, gorgeous insurance investigator. The suave charms of a billionaire playboy only out for the fun. This film is Tony Stark as an art thief.
One morning, while Thomas Crown is at work, a robbery takes place at an art gallery. Coming in through a Trojan horse, the thieves almost get away with it, but Crown swoops in and takes the piece at the last second. When insurance investigator Catherine Banning lists him as a suspect, Crown starts the game, flirting and romancing, teasing and lying. The couple soon have to decide whether to keep playing or dash it all for a fantasy, and as the relationship starts to heat up, it gets harder and harder for them to quit.
Pierce Brosnan plays Thomas Crown with a debonair charm. There’s something mystical about how he’s able to become so likable that once he’s got the painting framed in his own home, you can’t help but laugh along with him. When Crown pulls off his last big trick in the gallery, his wicked ways always put a grin on my face. It’s easy to write off his performance here as Bond-like, but I propose that’s what the character is: Bond as the villain. Rene Russo plays Catherine Banning with seductive and superior attitude, while also being able to show romantic weakness in the latter half, having jealousy stall her investigation. Russo portrays Banning as a more human Catherine Tramell and the role reversal works wonders. Dennis Leary plays Micheal McCann, the detective put on the case and unfortunately, the character doesn’t seem to have much personality. Leary does a fine job of portraying the image of a stern cop, but the character himself seems too simple. There’s no arc for him like Jake Gitts or Nick Curran, he’s just a cop out to get his target. Rinse and repeat.
Also making a cameo appearance is Faye Dunaway who you may have seen from ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ or the original ‘Thomas Crown Affair’ as Banning with Steve McQueen as the title character.
Mason’s Top 3 Reasons To See ‘The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)’
- One of, if not the best use of ‘Sinnerman’ in a film
- A stylish, seductive heist movie to rival even ‘Ocean’s Eleven’
- A cast combo almost as steamy as Micheal Douglas and Sharon Stone
Mason Horsley is a graduate of UOW with a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Arts, majoring in Creative Writing and minoring in Theatre. He hopes to write and direct a feature film and has been working on screenplays since he was 17. He writes film reviews for the Tertangala and works on his latest project ‘The Last Film’ while working a full-time job at a fish market. Mason despises reviewing films he dislikes and because of this, every review he writes acts as a recommendation.
Image Credit: IMDb