THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR
MGM
Starring Pierce Brosnan, Rene Russo, Denis Leary, Frankie Faison,
Faye Dunaway, Ben Gazzara, Esther Cañadas
Music by Bill Conti
Photographed by Tom Priestley
Story by Alan R. Trustman
Screenplay by Leslie Dixon and Kurt Wimmer
Directed by John McTiernan
1968's The Thomas Crown Affair
starred Steve McQueen, the epitome of cool, as a cocky millionaire
thief, and Faye Dunaway as the glam insurance investigator who
falls for him. On the recent DVD release of the film, director
Norman Jewison confesses that it was a triumph of style over substance,
and he's right. Left with an undernourished screenplay by lawyer
and first-time writer Alan R. Trustman, Jewison and cinematographer
Haskell Wexler juiced it up with split-screen storytelling and
a taut bank heist sequence shot at a real bank during business
hours, without telling customers so that their shocked reactions
would be real.
The end result was all pretty pictures and no depth
— like a fashion catalog. The film never bothered to delve into what made
McQueen and Dunaway's characters tick; for instance, it depicted McQueen's Thomas
Crown as a bored rebel fighting the system, but it never adequately explained
why. The lush, snappy Michel Legrand jazz score seemed to do most of the talking
for its almost mute characters. Even the McQueen-Dunaway romance seemed underdeveloped,
although it featured one brilliant moment, when their characters played what
has to be the most erotic chess game in film history. (Mike Myers lampooned
the chess scene in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.)
John McTiernan's new take on The
Thomas Crown Affair, which stars Pierce Brosnan and a surprisingly
feisty Rene Russo, changes the title character from a bank robber
to an art thief trying to get his mitts on his favorite Monet.
The update is bigger and slicker than Jewison's version. But it's
also more involving, thanks to screenwriters Leslie Dixon and
Kurt Wimmer, and it brings a humanity and playfulness to material
that was empty and frigid in the older film. It's one of the few
remakes superior to the original.
If you recall, McTiernan was the Die
Hard and Hunt for Red October director who bungled
big time with the clunky Medicine Man and the clunkier
Last Action Hero and then saw his clout slip off faster
than Russo's skirt in this film. In Thomas Crown, McTiernan
strips away the fat that characterized his filmmaking in his last
few pictures and directs everything with grace and wit, from the
brief scenes between Crown and his shrink (Dunaway in an amusing
cameo) to the twist-filled heist sequences.
There's no steamy chess game, but Brosnan
and Russo have lots of wild sex in an extended love scene that's
quite audacious, and not just because these are fortysomething
stars not exactly known for prancing around in their birthday
suits. It's a scene that,
for a change, doesn't look so dour and stilted, like most Hollywood
sex scenes, and is reminiscent of Jeff Goldblum and Emma Thompson's
delightfully over-the-top romp in The Tall Guy, except
the apartment isn't left in shambles.
© 2001 Jim Aquino