Review of "The Thomas Crown Affair," DVD version

Review of

The Thomas Crown Affair, DVD version

Five out of five stars

 This is a very unusual romance where the viewer is kept guessing until the very end. Pierce Brosnan plays Thomas Crown, a very wealthy man that finds the thrill of the incredible robbery to be his passion in life. He is at base a loner that has no time for anything other than his pursuit of the next adrenaline fix.  His latest is the theft of a priceless painting from one of the most heavily guarded museums in New York City and he carries it out during the day when the museum is open and conducting tours.

 Rene Russo plays Catherine Banning, a very expensive insurance investigator with a passion for catching her quarry that equals Crown’s for excitement. She immediately recognizes the kindred spirit for adventure in Crown and realizes that he was the one that carried out the theft. Yet, there is a powerful attraction between the two from their first moment of interaction and it becomes a sexually charged dance between the guilty and the one trying to prove him so.

 The action is sometimes steamy and even though Crown professes his love for Banning, she never is willing to accept that it is genuine, considering it a ploy to foil her investigation. All the while she appears to be using her sexual prowess to lull Crown down a path of vulnerability. After the painting is returned by Crown through a clever series of stunts, there is a lengthy moment of uncertainty until the final action reveals what was for me an unexpected conclusion.

 There is no significant violence, it is a hot love story between two people that may be finding another human of the opposite gender that can provide them with the intense thrills that they crave and might even need to survive.