"You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will have to live in torment if you do not trust enough," Frank Crane has wisely observed. Although New York billionaire Thomas Crown (Pierce Brosnan) has everything money can buy, he is still looking for a woman who can match his bravado, wit, and zest for breaking the rules. He meets the woman of his dreams in Catherine Banning (Rene Russo), a female investigator for an insurance company, after a $100 million Monet painting is stolen from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Catherine is a skilled and confident woman used to solving mysteries. Of course, she, too, has never found her equal. Although Detective Michael McCann (Denis Leary) and his team on the New York City police department remain unconvinced, Catherine is sure that Thomas Crown is behind the art theft. She begins a romantic relationship with him, ostensibly to get some proof for her theory. But their encounters bristle with erotic tension and excitement. It's never clear who's on top or whether they are just playing with each other.
John McTiernan directs this snappy psychodrama based on Norman Jewison's 1968 version starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. The latter also appears here as the millionaire's very astute therapist. The Thomas Crown Affair is a slick production that is very well acted. Thomas Fuller has written: "At the gate which suspicion enters, love goes out." Yes, but in the game of love, sometimes even the most untrustworthy players can surprise us.