The Thomas Crown Affair

The billionaire Thomas Crown steals a Monet from the Metropolitan out of boredom, and Catherine Banning, investigating for the insurer, knows who did it from day one. It is not a detective story; it is two people flirting while trying to beat each other. This is a remake of the 1968 film. Pierce Brosnan takes the part Steve McQueen played, with Rene Russo as Banning. Faye Dunaway, who led the original, appears here as Crown's therapist, one of the more graceful nods any remake has managed. The original's famous formal trick was the split screen. Rather than repeat it, John McTiernan found another route for the heist sequences: dozens of identical hats and identical coats moving through a crowd. The final museum sequence is the best thing in the film. Michel Legrand's The Windmills of Your Mind, written for the original, returns here too. Who it is for: viewers who like elegant heist films and competitive flirtation between adults. Who it is not for: anyone wanting suspense. There is never a real sense of danger, and that is deliberate.