Movie Review: Tin Cup (1996)

A sports romance and comedy, Tin Cup does not lack charm but struggles to justify itself.

In West Texas, Roy "Tin Cup" McAvoy (Kevin Costner) runs a ramshackle golf driving range with his friend Romeo (Cheech Marin). In his college years, Roy and his friend and rival David Simms (Don Johnson) both showed great promise on the golf course. Simms is now a star on the PGA tour, while Roy never tamed his aggressive play with the necessary discipline to compete.

Simms and his girlfriend Dr. Molly Griswold (Rene Russo), a psychologist, show up at the driving range and old rivalries are rekindled. Simms convinces Roy to be his caddie for a charity tournament, an experience that ends badly, while a mutual attraction develops between Roy and Molly. To prove himself worthy of her love, he decides to enter the U.S. Open.

A bloated exercise in celebrating a maverick character, Tin Cup attempts to recreate the vibe of Bull Durham. Director and co-writer Ron Shelton re-teams with star Kevin Costner, and the setting switches from baseball backwaters to golf hinterlands. This is a retread with less interesting characters who really don't deserve the attention, the seams showing in a patched-up attempt to remix an old formula at an inexcusable length of 134 minutes.

For a movie about golf, there is too much golf. The final chapter is an endless recreation of Roy's US Open run, passing through all the regional qualification tournaments, and the pacing starts to resemble a long night of tedium watching the Golf Channel with no off button on the remote. An unknown's Quixotic quest to win a major tournament carries traditional underdog appeal, but it's still a relief when the William Ross music soars to predictable levels of nauseous melodrama to celebrate a heroic inability to compromise principles.

Nuggets of enjoyment do rescue a basic level of watchability. Kevin Costner admirably invests in a man content with his chosen lot in life, a living example that raw talent alone is far from a sufficient condition for success. The west Texas desert milieu provides a beautifully desolate backdrop to a proud life happily wasted, and Don Johnson is quite good as the suitably smarmy but still quite clever counterpoint.

Rene Russo struggles with the underwritten and frequently unconvincing role of Molly - for a doctor she is none too clever and quickly falls for the charms of a flawed man - but nevertheless provides some comic relief and the occasional spark. Cheech Marin is a classic sidekick, equally entranced and frustrated by his hero.

Despite a wild swing aiming for old glories, Tin Cup settles for a middling round.



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Movie Review: Nightcrawler (2014)

A slick drama thriller, Nightcrawler tackles themes of gutter journalism, unbridled ambition and the relentless pursuit of the American dream.

In Los Angeles, Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a scrap metal thief operating exclusively at night and harbouring ambitions of starting a more legitimate career. He stumbles upon a highway car crash scene and meets freelance videographer - or "stringer" - Joe Loder (Bill Paxton). Louis decides to enter the business and buys a basic police scanner and video camera. Soon he captures images at a drive-by shooting and displays a cold-blooded talent for videotaping up-close gore.

He finds a buyer in overnight television news producer Nina Romina (Rene Russo), who works at the lowest rated station and is obsessed with stories that evoke fear by demonstrating urban crime creeping into the suburbs. Louis takes on apprentice Rick (Riz Ahmed) and goes on a streak of scooping Loder. The money from Nina flows in, allowing Louis to upgrade his car and equipment. Inspired by lessons learned from online business management courses, Louis' ambition is unleashed, and he starts shaping his career, his relationship with Nina, and the news.

Written and directed by Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler is an intense profile of the drive for success. Compact, efficient, relentless, and dark literally and figuratively, the film is unblinking, a combination of character study, psychological drama and tense thriller. Gorgeously photographed to illuminate the seductive power of night, every part of the film fits together, from the subtle emotional manipulation moments to the straight excitement of a climax where news, entertainment and personal agendas meld into one wild night.

The story is disturbing and compelling in equal parts, a commentary on a society where everybody can strive to be a somebody, whether deserved or not. Nightcrawler shines a spotlight on what goes on at night and in the deepest recesses of every human mind, as the drive towards something better finds a manifestation within an unlikely character. Gilroy creates a sinister protagonist and proceeds to use him as a mirror to the great human desire for betterment.

Jake Gyllenhaal creates a bug-eyed, sleazy-haired look suitable for a life spent in the dark of night, and delivers a performance filled with macabre fervour. By most definitions Louis Bloom deserves nothing other than prison time, and yet his coldly calculating and methodical approach towards carving out a career can only be admired. Spouting stock business school phrases and vacuous statements about management, leadership and success, Bloom's self-awareness, grit, perseverance and smarmy charm take him a long way in a short time.

Bloom carves his road to success in the world of fear-mongering television journalism where the most important story is the one with the most shocking visuals. Nina Romina is hungry for ratings success and specializes in serving up crap for the breakfast news show, and in Bloom she finds the cockroach who will drag the most disgusting filth from the depths of night and into the morning cereal bowl.

Joe Loder and Rick are the other characters inhabiting this night world. Both are also striving to improve their status but up against Louis, they will learn what ruthless ambition looks like. It's only in the absence of attentive light that degenerate cruelty finds the opportunities to thrive.

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Movie Review: The Intern (2015)

A charming intergenerational workplace comedy, The Intern benefits from smart character dynamics and elegant execution.

In New York City, Ben Whittaker (Robert De Niro) is 70 years old, widowed, retired, and looking for a new challenge. After a 40-year career spent with a phone book publisher, Ben is hired as a Senior Intern with the successful e-commerce apparel company About The Fit and assigned to help the company's founder and CEO Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). Despite his old fashioned suits and habits, Ben quickly becomes popular with the company's young workforce. He catches the eye of in-house masseuse Fiona (Rene Russo), who is thrilled to find another mature co-worker.

Initially the harried Jules has no time for Ben, but gradually he gains her trust, first as her driver then as a confidant and friend. He learns that the company's investors are seeking a new CEO to help manage the explosive growth and reduce Jules' workload. She is reluctant to give up control, but also wants to do the right thing. Ben also meets Jules' stay-at-home husband Matt (Anders Holm) and young daughter Paige, and starts to notice the stresses on the home front.

Written and directed by Nancy Meyers, The Intern chooses weighty modern themes and tackles them with unusual astuteness. The subject matters include the challenges women face as leaders, particularly in managing family time; the cultural gap between boomers and millennials; the awkward re-entry into the workforce at an older age; and the difficult transition from start-up to an established business with explosive growth.

Even the sub-themes are relevant. The Millenials' struggle to find affordable housing and the awkward dynamics of a new romance at an older age play out in the background. To Meyers' credit, the film demonstrates a deft touch and teases out all the necessary conflict points while sidestepping melodramatics and overt lecturing.

The two main characters are well written and contribute enormously to the film's appeal. Neither Ben nor Jules are perfect. He is old fashioned, almost too reverential, and finds it difficult to express his thoughts. She is overworked, overcommitted, overstimulated and always distracted when home. And yet both are genuine and well-meaning, and The Intern is more about common ground and welcome new perspectives than it is about a clash of generations. Ben offers Jules a sturdy sounding board and the voice of experience; she offers him a renewed lease on life. Both move towards new beginnings as a result of the internship.

Refreshingly, the film excludes any form of antagonist or contrived crises. Everytime the film threatens to go in such directions Meyers pulls it back into the pragmatic realm, and apart from a comic interlude related to an errant e-mail, The Intern exudes the welcome warmth of grounded humanity.

In one of his much better late career outings, Robert De Niro holds the film's centre and delivers a controlled performance, allowing Ben's calm maturity to shine through, enhanced by his understanding and acceptance of how the world has evolved. Anne Hathaway contributes the energy of a frazzled executive running on adrenaline, and shines in a couple of revelatory scenes.

Witty and composed, The Intern brings out the best of the old and the new.

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Movie Review: Big Trouble (2002)

A madcap comedy, Big Trouble overloads the screen with wild characters and ridiculous events hurtling at an insane pace. A lot of it does generate big laughs, but the entertainment remains breathlessly shallow.

In Miami, former journalist Eliot Arnold (Tim Allen) runs a one-man advertising business. Eliot's teenaged son Matt (Ben Foster) attempts to drench classmate Jenny Herk (Zooey Deschanel) with a water gun, but instead interferes with the real attempted assassination of Jenny's father Arthur (Stanley Tucci) by hitmen Henry (Dennis Farina) and Leonard (Jack Kehler). Miami cops Monica (Janeane Garofalo) and Walter (Patrick Warburton) try to sort out the mess, while Eliot is immediately attracted to Anna (Rene Russo), Arthur's long suffering wife.

The events of the night result in wandering free spirit Puggy (Jason Lee), who likes to live in trees, meeting Arthur's housekeeper Nina (Sofia Vergara), and the two develop an immediate attraction.

Arthur is embezzling funds from a mobster-linked organization, and to seek revenge on his would-be killers he attempts to purchase a mysterious weapon in a steel case from Russian criminals. But his plans are foiled by Snake (Tom Sizemore) and Eddie (Johnny Knoxville), two sleazeball incompetent petty thieves. FBI agents Pat Greer (Heavy D) and Alan Seitz (Omar Epps) are trying to recover the missing weapon, resulting in a frenzied chase across Miami.

There is no doubt that Big Trouble contains some big laughs. Director Barry Sonnenfeld adapts the Dave Barry book of the same name with an eye to achieving a nutty spectacle at a breakneck pace, and often hits his targets within a compact 85 minutes of pure insanity.

Despite the numerous characters and events, Sonnenfeld manages to keep a hold of the material and generates a steady stream of laughs, quickly moving away from any sense of normal and into the realm of the absurd where anything goes. The scenes involving the Russian arms traders pretending to be seedy bar operators tend to work best, and the hitman character of Henry gets the sharpest lines and some funny gems.

The hapless duo of Snake and Eddie are effective as victims of Darwinian certainty surely awaiting their hour of extinction. Meanwhile a herd of goats makes a late appearance and gets right into the action, as does a mall cop, Eliot's cigar-chomping client and the Herk family dog.

Less effective is the airy subplot involving the ethereal Puggy being lifted along with events, while Nina is the most notable victim of the overstuffed script. Tim Allen is supposed to be in the middle of the mess but only achieves middling success, his suburban doofus Dad persona not quite finding a home in the edgy material. Stanley Tucci goes the other way with his over-the-top bagman, cussing up a storm.

Ultimately what Big Trouble lacks is any sense of genuine soul or caring. The film is about a large number of people running around engaged in cartoon-like behaviour and stirring up crazy funny antics; none of them come close to being real characters worth knowing or caring about. Big Trouble is really funny while it lasts, but has big trouble leaving a lasting impression.

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Movie Review: In The Line Of Fire (1993)

A thriller set in the world of Secret Service agents protecting the President, In The Line Of Fire mixes good action with plenty of character depth and cerebral touches.

In Washington DC, Frank Horrigan (Clint Eastwood) is an aging Secret Service agent, still traumatized by his inability to prevent the Kennedy assassination. Frank investigates evidence at a nondescript apartment suggesting a potential assassin on the loose, and starts to receive taunting phone calls from a man calling himself Booth (John Malkovich), who openly admits to planning a kill the current President. Secret Service Director Sam Campagna (John Mahoney) places Frank back on the security detail surrounding the President, who is in the midst of a re-election campaign.

Frank works with his partner Al D'Andrea (Dylan McDermott) and fellow agent Lilly Raines (Rene Russo) to keep the President safe and try to uncover Booth's true identity. But Frank's age and emotional demons get in the way and White House staff get tired of his temper and over-eager actions. Despite setbacks Frank doggedly pursues the shadowy Booth, who has a dark background of his own.

Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, In The Line Of Fire is a well-paced cat and mouse game between two damaged opponents, with bursts of action matched by thoughtful interludes designed to flesh out Frank's past and present emotional condition. The film succeeds due to its significant investment in Frank as a flawed warrior, the last Secret Service agent from the day Kennedy was killed still on active duty.

Booth pushes Frank's buttons, and the film derives as much enjoyment from their psychologically riveting phone conversations as from their kinetic on-the-ground chase scenes. The phone calls are a chess game of taunt and counter-taunt, filled with clues, traps and cryptic signposts, the killer-to-be enjoying the game only so long as it is close. And when it's time to turn up the heat Peterson knows how to deliver breathless action, with one rooftop chase landing at an excellent climax, hunter and hunted in a most ironic clutch.

Once Booth's identity is revealed another layer of scar tissue is added, the boomerang of government actions coming home to roost. Although the killer is a chilling menace throughout thanks to John Malkovich's blood curdling performance and some terrific disguises, the Jeff Maguire script could have invested more time to delve into his damaged psyche. And the romance elements between Frank and Lilly are stuttering at best, the 24 year age difference between Eastwood and Russo not helping.

Eastwood is much better away from any notions of love. In The Line Of Fire allows him to do what he does best: spit bullets as the angry lone wolf working within the system, fighting to save the incompetents from themselves, able to match wits with a maniac because he is unafraid to unleash his own inner fiend.

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The Movies Of Rene Russo

All movies starring Rene Russo and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

In The Line Of Fire (1993)

Outbreak (1995)

Get Shorty (1995)

Tin Cup (1996)

Ransom (1996)

The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)

Big Trouble (2002)

Nightcrawler (2014)

The Intern (2015)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Ransom (1996)

A child kidnapping thriller, Ransom enjoys excellent production values, a committed Mel Gibson performance and a determination to accentuate the cerebral aspects of crime gamesmanship.

Tom Mullen (Gibson) is a successful businessman, the head of a major airline that he created from humble beginnings. He lives in a swanky Manhattan condominium overlooking Central Park with his wife Kate (Rene Russo) and young son Sean (Brawley Nolte). However, there is a shadow hanging over Tom's business dealings involving unproven accusations of illegal payments to avoid a union strike. The Mullens' world is plunged into a nightmare when Sean is abducted during an outdoor public event. Tom and Kate soon receive a ransom demand for $2 million, and FBI Agent Lonnie Hawkins (Delroy Lindo) takes charge of the investigation.

The kidnap mastermind is New York Police Detective Jimmy Shaker (Gary Sinise), who is disgusted with Tom's seemingly shady business ethics. Jimmy's crew consists of girlfriend Maris (Lili Taylor), tech expert Miles (Evan Handler), and brothers Clark and Cubby (Liev Schreiber and Donnie Wahlberg). Sean is handcuffed to a bed and blindfolded while Jimmy makes his demands, with Tom and Kate wondering how much they can trust Lonnie's advice. When an arranged money drop goes bad, Sean's life is placed in grave danger, and Tom decides that a fundamental change in negotiating tactics is needed.

Directed by Ron Howard, Ransom is an intelligent thriller which relies on plot and characters and resists most impulses to engage in mindless action. The film remains grounded in relative foundations of reality, and the kidnapping ordeal enjoys a trio of excellent, out of the box twists. The drama is well paced, the two hours of running time efficiently used to recount a story rich in detail and resolve.

The script by Richard Price and Alexander Ignon gets the fundamentals right by investing in both sides of the kidnapping. While Tom and Kate's trauma does get the majority of attention, a significant amount of time is spent with Jimmy and his gang, humanizing the criminals and building to an effective climax where the need for complex decisions will come to the fore at the individual level.

The central twist in the negotiations, a ploy too clever to reveal, sets the film off in a new direction and radically changes the dynamic between Jimmy, Tom and Kate. It's an idea both foolish and audacious, and sets the film apart from most other kidnap thrillers. Of course all daring initiatives can suffer from the law of unintended consequences, and Ransom rides one wild notion straight into another, victim and perpetrator locking horns and engaging in a new battle of wits within an unexpected context.

Howard infuses the film with his usual commitment to quality, and Ransom enjoys lush cinematography courtesy of Piotr Sobocińsk, attractive locations and the occasional on-the-street burst of dynamism. Not unexpectedly, there are hints of big budget over orchestration in some scenes, Howard always choosing multiple helicopters and hordes of extras when more intriguing and more modest options were perhaps available.

Mel Gibson delivers a surprisingly effective performance. He tones down both his boyish charm and his manic intensity, and settles into the relatively steady tone of a concerned father who nevertheless will not subdue his entrepreneurial inclination to seek a different and better solution. Gary Sinise offers a perfect foil as the smart and determined police detective moonlighting as a criminal, although more background on what fueled Jimmy Shaker's motivation would have been welcome. The rest of the cast is brimming with talent and provides solid support.

Canny and resourceful, Ransom delivers a satisfying pay off.

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Movie Review: Get Shorty (1995)

A comedy gangster thriller, Get Shorty throws everything at the screen with plenty of attitude, but finally gets muddled enough to lose its own vibe.

Chili Palmer (John Travolta) works as a collector on behalf of loan sharks, and manages to insult Miami Beach mobster Ray "Bones" Barbone (Dennis Farina). But when Chili's boss Momo dies suddenly, he finds himself employed by Bones, and his first assignment is to track down dry cleaner Leo Devoe (David Paymer) who owes Bones money and has committed insurance fraud. Chili tracks Leo from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, and along the way picks up another assignment to collect an outstanding loan from Z-movie producer Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman).

Zimm is dreaming of producing a big-league script, and is using starlet Karen Flores (Rene Russo) to try and get her former husband and movie star Martin Weir (Danny DeVito) interested in starring. Chili is a fan of films and fancies himself as a producer, and starts to sweet-talk his way into the deal. Meanwhile Zimm has big problems with limousine company owner Bo "Cat" Catlett (Delroy Lindo) and his henchman Bear (James Gandolfini), a veteran stuntman. Zimm owes Cat money for an unproduced film, and Cat wants to either collect or get a cut of Zimm's new project. Cat himself is tangling with Colombian drug lords, with a $500,000 payment from Cat to the Colombians sitting in an airport locker, under the close scrutiny of federal drug enforcement agents.

An adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, Get Shorty has obvious intentions to build on the success of 1994's Pulp Fiction. With multiple overlapping story lines, a script more witty than real, Travolta in fine form as a likable criminal and violence never far from everyone's mind or intention, Get Shorty lines up all the requisite elements. The film is fun, sharp and exudes a confidence that mostly comes from the attractively hip and uncommonly cerebral Chili Palmer character, but it's also a film too packed and too short for its own good.

The Scott Frank screenplay takes plenty of shots at the movie industry, including the running theme that nobody seems to care enough to actually read the much coveted script of Zimm's dream project. Chili has his own story in mind inspired by the fugitive Leo, and he seems to assume that as a self-appointed producer, his thoughts will work their way into the script.

Get Shorty eventually buckles under its own weight. Bette Midler makes a rather late appearance as the widow of the screenwriter, Colombia drug lords enter the picture, Bones makes his way to Los Angeles, people start getting beat up while other characters die untimely deaths, and rather than driving towards a satisfying ending, the film gets away from both Sonnenfeld and Frank. The ending is abrupt, almost as if the money ran out, leaving story debris scattered all over the place and sacrificed for the sake of a cheap laugh.

While Travolta is smooth, Hackman, DeVito, Russo and Midler play their roles almost strictly for dry laughs. Lindo and Gandolfini go the other way but reach the same destination, hissing with intensity that borders on comical.

Moderately amusing, Get Shorty is ultimately overstuffed and truncated.

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Movie Review: Outbreak (1995)

A micro-biology scientific thriller that implodes into the worst excesses of mindless action, Outbreak is half of a good movie. A deep cast maintains interest, but the acting talent cannot overcome a script that sells out to cheap thrills.

A deadly virus called Motaba breaks out in darkest Africa, causing death within hours. Infectious disease scientist Colonel Sam Daniels (Dustin Hoffman) of the US military and his team, including Major Schuler (Kevin Spacey) and Major Salt (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) are assigned to investigate. Motaba takes a ride inside a monkey with immunity to the virus, and crosses into the United States. Thanks to an unscrupulous pet smuggler (Patrick Dempsey), a lot of people are soon infected and start to die horrible deaths, with a concentration of cases in the town of Cedar Creek, California.

Daniels is eager to help find an antidote, but his boss General Ford (Morgan Freeman), along with another military commander General McClintock (Donald Sutherland), are not so keen: they have known about Motaba since the late 1960s, and in fact the military has secretly converted it to a biological weapon and developed a cure. Not willing to reveal these secrets, Ford and McClintock delay releasing the antidote, causing more misery in the now quarantined Cedar Creek. Daniels disobeys orders and teams up with his ex-wife Robby (Rene Russo) of the Centre for Disease Control to try to help the community, setting himself up on a collision course with his military commanders.

While the first half of Outbreak is a tightly wound examination of the battle between micro-organisms and man, with a cautionary look at how a lethal new disease can easily spread and devastate lives and communities, the back end of the story fragments into a ludicrous chase movie. Daniels and Salt set off on their own to attempt and save the town by finding the disease host, while McClintock spits venom and tracks them down to protect the military's dirty secrets. With stock helicopter chases and mid-air games of chicken replacing the smart science, Outbreak suffers from a most ignominious descent into banality.

The cast deserve better. Although none of them stand out, all are uniformly good, and even the relatively minor roles are interesting in the hands of the likes of Spacey, Gooding Jr., and Dempsey. Rene Russo makes the forced sub-plot of a lost marriage between Daniels and Robby more palatable. Meanwhile, the old pros Hoffman, Freeman and Sutherland cut through the unfolding drama with practised ease. Hoffman's Colonel Daniels is the caring soul at the centre of the movie, a character suitable for Hoffman's persona although if anything, Daniels is almost annoyingly too pure in his dedication to the alleviation of human suffering.

Freeman's General Ford is always going to be the hinge that will need to turn to change the course of the military's focus, and Freeman nails the veteran soldier disciplined to a fault but with a heart deep within his military uniform. Sutherland gets the easiest assignment: McClintock is mean as mean can be, and makes no apologies for his tunnel vision. Wolfgang Petersen directs with competence rather than passion, eager to give each star sufficient screen time and sacrificing any attempts at artistry in the process.

Outbreak appeals to the brain early and the brainless brawn late, a jarring transition that splits the film in half and wounds its heart.

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Movie Review: The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)

A love story comfortably embedded in the high-glitz world of precious art, The Thomas Crown Affair targets a mature audience with a smooth vibe, eloquent character development, and only enough action to spice the story, rather than dominate it.

New York mergers and acquisitions tycoon Thomas Crown (Pierce Brosnan) owns everything that life has to offer, but still enjoys stealing the occasional piece of art. His psychiatrist (Faye Dunaway) is quick to pin-point the lonely hole in his heart as the one thing that he cannot satisfy with his riches. After Crown masterminds a daring theft and elegantly walks off with a precious Monet painting, insurance investigator Catherine Banning (Rene Russo) is called in to recover the painting. Banning quickly suspects Crown, but he is too clever to allow her to find the necessary proof that he committed the theft. Also trying to crack the case is police detective Michael McCann (Denis Leary), who finds himself competing with Banning in attempts to corner Crown.

Banning cozies up to Crown to try and uncover his secrets, but a strong mutual attraction gradually develops between the two. Banning is caught between her job and her heart, Crown is caught between his crime and his love, and McCann would just rather be focusing on catching real criminals rather than rich men stealing over-priced art from pretentious museums.

A remake of a classic 1968 movie starring Steve McQueen and Dunaway, The Thomas Crown Affair achieves absorbing depth through patience. The Thomas Crown character is gradually revealed to be an extraordinarily rich executive, a thief, a competitive sportsman, and a fearless risk-taker. When he finally lets his guard down and succumbs to romance with the one person able to match him, the evolution rings true as the next logical step to complete his life. Outside of James Bond, Thomas Crown may be the perfect Pierce Brosnan persona, the suave playboy with everything, but always on the lookout for the next thing.

Rene Russo as Catherine Banning almost keeps up with Brosnan. Banning is a daring jet-setter, fiercely determined to do her job and cash in the commission millions. When Banning finally understands what she up against with Crown, she unleashes her sexuality on him on the dance floor in a memorably stunning see-through dress. By pushing both of them over a forbidden threshold, Banning changes their fates and sets in motion events that neither of them control - not a situation that either Crown or Banning is comfortable with. This genuine emotional uncertainty in both main characters, triggered by unexpected passion sets The Thomas Crown Affair apart and keeps director John McTiernan firmly in charge as the only person guiding the outcome.

The central relationship is a perfectly constructed conundrum, Crown realizing that Banning is the woman who can fill the gap in his life that drives him to crime, but also the woman who can destroy his life by uncovering his criminal activity. He has to find a way to establish trust and create the space for love with the one person who can either save him emotionally or dismantle his empire.

Two prolonged and well-executed art theft scenes at the lush and busy museum bookend the movie, the climax particularly dazzling as Crown cleverly outsmarts all security measures with the simplest of tools. The Thomas Crown Affair maintains its measured approach to the end, and builds its drama on welcome intellect and a credible, complex romance.

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