After the daring burglary of a famous painting, insurance investigator Catherine Banning (Rene Russo) becomes suspicious of a seemingly oblivious bystander, billionaire Thomas Crown (Pierce Brosnan).
As she closes in on him, investigator and suspect find themselves drawn together by the thrill of a different kind of chase…
I need to watch more caper movies.
They are so much fun.
Movie stars in beautiful/beautifully photographed locations. Throw in some glamour and ostentatious displays of wealth, a little sex appeal and some tension.
It can be the best example of commercial cinema.
I am more familiar with the 1999 version. It starred James Bond, so I was onboard.
The Norman Jewison original is a light, enjoyable nothing of a movie.
In the title role, Steve McQueen is as magnetically oblique as ever. Faye Dunaway matches him as the almost supernaturally ruthless insurance investigator. They are an anti-heroic couple for the ages.
One frustration - and this is purely a result of familiarity with the remake - the fact that McQueen is only the mastermind of the burglaries, rather than a participant, feels a tad too remote.
One gets the sense he is applying the same skills he brought to the business world to crime - but it feels too remote to be exciting.
It is hard to invest in someone using people to commit crimes (which get violent).
For a light, frothy caper movie it is a tad too nefarious.
What gives the movie power is the chemistry between the stars, and their constant manoeuvring to get the better of each other.
What the ‘99 version has is a complete relationship arc.
McQueen can sell enigmatic cool, which keeps the ‘68 version working - but it lacks the sense of tragedy intended by its ending.
He has returned the money but has stolen Dunaway’s heart.
The ‘99 version reorients the romance.
Brosnan’s Crown has genuine emotional stakes in the relationship.
A novel twist - a thrill-seeking billionaire finds his life fulfilled by someone who challenges him.
Crown’s scheme is more low stakes - it is about overcoming an obstacle.
Brosnan is good but this is Rene Russo’s show.
Russo is a powerhouse, juicing up the movie as soon as she appears on screen. A tough cookie, her performance radiates the intelligence and hard-won wisdom of someone who has seen through every variety of BS.
It is still rare, but it is so refreshing to see a romance about actual adults - people in their forties getting up to all the kinds of escapist, sexy hijinks usually assigned to younger leads (or more likely, a male lead in his forties and a female lead in her 20s).
These are movie stars but the characters also feel like complicated people. Unlike the original, these characters are allowed to be vulnerable.
Their chess game feels more intimate because it feels like the characters are dealing with the consequences of their various machinations.
It is the magic trick of this movie, the last great film of John McTiernan, that it manages to balance the caper, the escapism, the genre’s sense of play and lack of consequence, and give it a real sense of danger for the characters - not from death or real danger, but from exposing how they really feel.
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