History Film / TheThomasCrownAffair1999

%%* GentlemanThief: Crown. This is more of a remake trait; in the original, he was merely bored.

* MsFanservice: Catherine Banning, particularly in her VaporWear dress.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Katherine's response to Crown's prank at the end of the film. She tries to hide her smiling and laughter but fails.

* AntiVillain: Crown himself probably counts as this, being a charming GentlemanThief who never actually hurts anyone, he comes across more as a [[LovableRogue playful scalliwag]].

** Odds are very good that Catherine would have been arrested much earlier in the film. She blatantly breaks into Crown's house (as noted by Detective [=McCann=]) and interferes heavily in the police investigation. Even if she had found the real painting at his house, her ongoing relationship with the police would have rendered her a state actor and therefore completely eliminated the state's chance to use the evidence in court. This is also pointed out by [=McCann=], but she counters that she's interested in getting the painting back, and doesn't care if Crown is prosecuted or not.

* CrazyPrepared: Crown shows himself to be one step ahead of the competition at every turn, and walks away at the end with everything he wanted (and more). He is also shown to be aware of every possibility, as evidenced when he neatly ends [=McCann=]'s search warrant by trotting out his lawyer, who ''happened'' to be in the Crown property at the time the warrant was being conducted, to stop it via technicality.

* {{Hammerspace}}: How Crown is able to fit the Monet into his briefcase, as the briefcase's width is half the size of the painting, and would require breaking the painting in half in order to actually fit inside, but somehow is transported undamaged.
* HeroAntagonist: [=McCann=] is generally a good person and a FairCop, he is also Crown's main opponent after Catherine.

* InspectorJavert: Subverted with [=McCann=]. Although he's somewhat annoyed with Crown's cavalier and arrogant attitude, overall he's fairly relaxed and easy-going, and at the end of the film he explains to Catherine (in such a gentle and friendly way that she's almost moved to tears) that he really doesn't get art, doesn't care about Crown stealing a painting, is only going through the motions because his bosses assigned him to the case, and his primary goals are bringing real, violent criminals to justice (noting that the week prior to the theft he put away two crooked real estate agents and a man who was beating his own children to death). He closes by making it very clear he has no problem looking the other way while her and Crown make their getaway.

All on that day ♫]]'']]

''The Thomas Crown Affair'' is the 1999 remake of ''Film/TheThomasCrownAffair1968'', directed by Creator/JohnMcTiernan and starring Creator/PierceBrosnan as Crown and Creator/ReneRusso as Catherine Banning, the insurance investigator looking into an art theft masterminded by Crown. Creator/FayeDunaway plays a minor role as Crown's psychiatrist. Creator/DenisLeary plays Detective [=McCann=], the official police investigator.

%%* RemakeCameo: Faye Dunaway as Crown's shrink.

** Odds are very good that Catherine would have been arrested much earlier in the film. She blatantly breaks into Crown's house (as noted by Detective [=McCann=]) and interferes heavily in the police investigation. Even if she had found the real painting at his house, her ongoing relationship with the police would have rendered her a state actor and therefore completely eliminated the state's chance to use the evidence in court.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Odds are very good that Catherine would have been arrested much earlier in the film. She blatantly breaks into Crown's house (as noted by Detective [=McCann=]) and interferes heavily in the police investigation. Even if she had found the real painting at his house, her ongoing relationship with the police would have rendered her a state actor and therefore completely eliminated the state's chance to use the evidence in court.

* InspectorJavert: ''Completely averted'' with [=McCann=]. He's fairly relaxed and easy-going, and at the end of the film he explains to Catherine (in such a gentle and friendly way that she's almost moved to tears) that he really doesn't get art, doesn't care about Crown stealing a painting, is only going through the motions because his bosses assigned him to the case, and his primary goals are bringing real, violent criminals to justice (noting that the week prior to the theft he put away two crooked real estate agents and a man who was beating his own children to death). He closes by making it very clear he has no problem looking the other way while her and Crown make their getaway.

* EccentricMillionaire: Crown, willing to place large bets on small things, wrecked a hundred thousand dollar boat because he killed the splash, and stole a painting worth over a hundred million dollars just for the thrill of it, [[spoiler:to the extent that he essentially returned the painting the day after he stole it (albeit 'disguised')]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Crown donates a Pissarro painting to take the place of the stolen Monet because "It seemed the right size for the space." [[spoiler: It's actually the stolen painting with a watercolor copy of the Pissarro painted on top. As a bonus, the two original paintings are almost identical in size, with the Pissarro being just 8 cm wider and the same height.]]

* Hammerspace: How Crown is able to fit the Monet into his briefcase, as the briefcase's width is half the size of the painting, and would require breaking the painting in half in order to actually fit inside, but somehow is transported undamaged.

* VaporWear: Possibly one of the greatest ever filmed. The shear dress that Banning wears to the dance was literally the only thing actress Rene Russo was wearing, and was so gossamer thin that extra care had to be taken to (not) light the scene so as to keep her from appearing naked on film. Russo has stated that the whole scene was incredibly uncomfortable to film, as she was (for all purposes) completely naked for everyone on set to see. The final film managed to hide this fact in its entirety, giving only the impression of an '''insanely''' sexy dress. [[spoiler: Reinforced immediately thereafter by DressHitsFloor in the next scene]]

* AnachronismStew: A minor example: when interrogating the "Romanian" suspect, Banning mentions that Romanians without papers make American authorities nervous because they might be from the "Securitate", the Communist Era Secret Police/Espionage Service which had been disbanded 10 years prior to the movie. The scene also counts as ViewersAreMorons as at that point in time Romania had applied for membership in NATO and had stated during the Kosovo crisis that it will act as a NATO member even if not officially one, a complete opposition to the tension between the two countries suggested by Banning's statement. Needless to say that reactions of Romanian viewers when watching the scene range for hysterical laughter to cringing.

%%* DressHitsFloor: Executed expertly.
%%* EccentricMillionaire: Crown.

* InspectorJavert: ''Completely averted'' with [=McCann=]. He's fairly relaxed and easy-going, and at the end of the film he explains to Catherine (in such a gentle and friendly way that she's almost moved to tears) that he really doesn't get art, doesn't care about Crown stealing a painting, is only going through the motions because his bosses assigned him to the case, and his primary goals are bringing real, violent criminals to justice. He closes by making it very clear he has no problem looking the other way while her and Crown make their getaway.

* {{Oxbridge}}: Crown is an alumnus of Oxford.

* DecoyGetaway / LostInACrowd / RingerPloy: A sequence near the end where Crown enters the art museum and plainly shows himself to the security cameras, making sure everyone can see that he wears a trench coat and bowler hat and carries a valise. Then he walks off in a random direction -- and hundreds of confederates break out identical hats, coats and valises, and start walking all over the museum, switching valises several times while the guards scramble. Somewhere in the confusion Crown ditches his own hat and coat, and slips out a side entrance. The scene also serves as a protracted reference to Crown's favorite possession being Creator/ReneMagritte's "The Son of Man", which depicts a man wearing a similar hat and coat. The decoys even have copies of the painting in their valises.