A very rich and successful playboy amuses himself by stealing artwork, but may have met his match in a seductive detective.
Self-made billionaire Thomas Crown is bored of being able to buy everything he desires. Being irresistible to women, he also does not feel any challenge in that area. But there are a few things even he can't get, therefore Thomas Crown has a seldom hobby: He steals priceless masterpieces of Art. After the theft of a famous painting from Claude Monet, the only person suspecting Thomas Crown is Catherine Banning. Her job is to get the picture back, no matter how she accomplishes her mission. Unfortunately, Catherine gets involved too deeply with Thomas to keep a professional distance to the case. Fortunately, Thomas seems to fall for her, too.—Julian Reischl <[email protected]>
A multi millionaire playboy Thomas Crown steals a priceless painting from an art gallery and finds out an insurance investigator Catherine Banning is onto him. They fall for each other but Catherine is unsure because Anna, a gorgeous young woman is always around him. They go to Martinique to be alone but after they come back Thomas wants them leave together. Catherine still isn't sure, will she trust him and will he be able to trust her and overcome his deepest fears?—Zagerzer
A bored multi-millionaire struggling to find new challenges arranges for the theft of a Monet painting from a museum. This sets a sexy insurance investigator after him, but unexpectedly the two fall in love. Does she keep her ethics and pin him for the crime she knows he committed or does she follow her heart? Things are complicated by a beautiful blonde that he keeps company with, when he is not with her.—John Sacksteder <[email protected]>
Competitive New York mergers and acquisitions king Thomas Crown steals a Monet for the challenge only to be fingered as the thief within two days by insurance investigator Catherine Banning who's smart, driven, and alone. Ostensibly she works with the police but in truth she runs her own show playing cat and mouse with Crown. Soon it's a romance: a black and white ball, a glider flight, two days in Martinique. Back in Manhattan, she thinks she has reason to be jealous, so when he suggests they go off together, she hesitates. He may have more tricks up his sleeve and, as his psychiatrist has asked him, what would it take for him to trust a woman and, in turn, be trusted?—<[email protected]>
Thieves infiltrate the Metropolitan Museum of Art inside an actual Trojan horse, preparing to steal an entire gallery of paintings, but are apprehended. In the confusion, billionaire Thomas Crown (Pierce Brosnan) - the crime's secret mastermind - steals Monet's painting of San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk. NYPD Detective Michael McCann (Denis Leary) heads the investigation into the theft of the $100 million artwork, with the unwelcome assistance of insurance investigator Catherine Banning (Rene Russo).
Banning says that according to McCann, the thieves shut off the AC to drive out the crowd from the museum (but they were themselves among the crowd). Plus, the theory of trying to steal 1000 pounds of artwork (plus 800 pounds of their own weight) doesn't seem plausible with a chopper that has a 600-pound effective load. There is also a mystery of a titanium briefcase that was used to keep open a specific gate of a section from where the Monet was stolen. Banning figures that the Monet section had thermal cameras. When the air was cut off, the temp rose so much that the entire camera feed was wiped off. But the rest of the sections were fine. She then figures that the desk in front of the Monet had 3 legs in the video and only 2 actually. (the 3rd leg was another briefcase placed by Thomas earlier in the day, in which he took the Monet home). Banning reckons that the bench briefcase also had a heater that increased the temp around the Monet more than the rest of the museum.
Banning watches as Thomas comes in to identify the perpetrators. She interrogates one of them and figures that they were hired to conduct the robbery by a middleman. They were given schedules and timetables and everything. Banning thinks they were hired to create a diversion.Crown donates a Pissarro to fill the Monet's space in the museum and falls under Banning's suspicion. Banning meets Thomas and tells him that she suspects him of stealing the Monet. Thomas is intrigued and asks her out to dinner. She convinces McCann to begin surveillance of Crown, deducing that the wealthy playboy is motivated not by money but the sheer thrill of the crime. Banning accepts Crown's invitation to dinner. Before the date, Crown's therapist correctly guesses that he has found "a worthy adversary" in Banning.
Before dinner Thomas takes Banning to the museum. Banning taunts Thomas by saying that personally she would have taken an irrelevant painting rather than the Monet (and points to the painting of a boat on a lake).
At dinner, Banning has a copy of Crown's keys made; she and her team search his home and discover the Monet, which is revealed to be a taunting imitation, painted over a copy of Poker Sympathy from the Dogs Playing Poker series. Banning confronts Crown and the two give in to their mutual attraction, spending a passionate night together.
Banning and Crown continue their cat-and-mouse game and their trysts, despite McCann's surveillance. Accompanying Crown on a trip to Martinique, Banning realizes he is preparing to run and rejects his offer to join him when the time comes. Banning is having full blown feelings towards Thomas but continues to look for clues for the missing Monet. After she returns, McCann presents Banning with photographs of Crown with another woman, Anna (Esther Cañadas), complicating her feelings toward the case and her prime suspect. when confronted Thomas maintained that he allowed himself to be photographed with Anna as he wanted to know Banning's true feelings towards him.
Banning and McCann discover that the fake Monet is in fact an expert forgery that could only have been painted by someone with access to the original; they visit the likeliest forger in prison, to no avail, although his attitude suggests to them that he recognizes the work.
Later, Banning finds Crown packing his belongings with Anna. He promises Banning his interest lies with her alone, stating that Anna works for him, but he would be compromising her to define the nature of their association, and offers to return the Monet, giving her a time and place to meet him when he's finished. Tearfully, Banning leaves and informs McCann.
The following day, the police stake out the museum, waiting to arrest Crown. Banning learns that the fake Monet was painted by Anna; the imprisoned forger is her father, a partner of Crown, who became her guardian. Crown arrives but quickly blends into the crowd, aided by lookalikes in bowler hats a la Magritte's The Son of Man. Evading police, Crown sets off the museum's fire sprinklers. His donated Pissarro, hanging in the Monet's place, is washed clean by the sprinklers to reveal the real Monet.
Crown's plan is made clear; upon stealing the Monet, Crown had Anna forge the Pissarro over it, and "returned" it to the museum. However, Crown has now vanished with another painting (the one that Banning had pointed to early on), but Banning's employer and McCann consider their case closed as this painting is not covered by Banning's employer. Banning races to meet Crown but finds only the missing painting. Devastated, she sends the painting to McCann, and boards a plane back to London. Taking her seat, she finds Crown sitting behind her and the two are passionately reunited.
