Stolen Painting and Heart (The Thomas Crown Affair [1999] (DVD))

Member Name: sewbizzie

Product:	The Thomas Crown Affair [1999] (DVD)
Date:	02/11/09 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great storyline and acting

Disadvantages: None from me

Thomas Crown is a billionaire working in the finance business. He seeks thrills as he finds his life boring. His latest plan is to steel a painting he likes from his favourite gallery in the daytime in front of everyone. To do this he gets a gang of people to bundle a robbery where he can then sneak in and take the painting unnoticed. Thomas is successful in his robbery and soon he has the painting hanging in his home.

The gallery owners claim for the painting on their insurance but as it is so valuable they have to have an officer investigate the claim and help with the police investigation and this happens to be Catherine Branning. She assists the police but soon she is drawing her own conclusions about the robbery and suspects that Thomas Crown stole it. She does question him and he in fact does no deny the robbery but she is not able to prove he did take it.

Soon the heat is on Catherine to prove Thomas did steal the painting and return it to the gallery but will she be able to resist Thomas' charm and the chemistry which is growing between them?

I decided to get this film as t stars Pierce Brosnan and I do quite like his work, well with the exception of the Bond films as I am not a Bond fan but anyway back to this one. I found he played the role of Thomas Crown very well and I liked the air of mystery he gave to the character. He was a very rich and handsome man and he had no problem using this to his advantage especially with the character of Catherine. Catherine was played by Rene Russo and I thought she did a great job. There was a lot of on screen chemistry between her and Brosnan and this did help with the storyline and the chemistry which was supposed to have been between the two characters. I did at times though find myself telling her to put some bloody clothes on, hubby did not like this and did enjoy the scenes of her being half naked but I personally found them inappropriate and don't think the film would have lost anything by them not being shown.

The storyline was very good and I thoroughly enjoyed it all. I did find at times it was cleverly done and what I was expecting to happen did not. The ending for me was a little surprising as I thought I had it all worked out but what I believed would happen did not. I think the storyline was helped by the actors used as they gave it a little bit more than others perhaps would.

There were a lot of supporting actors in the film and I thought they all did a great job and I thought that they each bought a little bit of depth to the film and made the story a little more realistic and made it not just centred around the two main characters. The one which really stood out for me was Denis Leary who played Michael McCann. I thought he did a great job and loved his characters.

The film was made in 1999 and despite now being 10 years old it really did not show. I thought a lot of time and effort was put into the costumes and sets and they all looked great. The music throughout the film was good but nothing special and I have to say that now I cannot remember even one track which was used. I did think it helped add to the drama of the film at the time of watching though.

The DVD which we have does have some bonus feature which include:-

24 minute long documentary 'The Making of a Masterpiece'
Full length commentary by Director John McTiernan
'Windmills of Your Mind' promotional video
US Theatrical Trailer

As I am not a fan of bonus material I have not watched any of these so I am unable to make comment on them.

The running time of the film is 1 hour and 48 minutes and I found this to be a good length with the story moving at a good pace throughout. The certificate is a 15 and I do agree with this as there is a lot of strong language and some nude scenes. This DVD is available for just £3 in Tesco which I thought was a bargain.

Overall I do recommend this film as it has a great cat and mouse storyline with great actors.

Summary: Thomas Crown steels a monet and Catherine haws to prove he did it