I’ve been dying to see this movie a second time for just over a year. When I first saw it, I was so completely overwhelmed by it, but then not long afterwards I couldn’t remember exactly why that was. I was worried that a second viewing might reveal that that first impression was caused by festive spirits of varying alcohol levels I was wrong. This is even more an all-time favourite of mine than ever before.

Purely on a sequence by sequence basis, this movie just has so damn many amazing setpieces, most obviously the museum scenes where Crown first steals the painting and then “returns” it. They’re so brilliantly procedural, showing every detail, but, like every good magician, finally withholding the biggest mystery (just how did he get Rene Russo her painting in the end?)

This wasn’t what grabbed me on that first viewing, though, and it’s not what made me fall in love again this time. It’s the characters, the sexiness, the… grown-up-ness of the whole thing. People who follow the stuff I write will know I don’t exactly fall for fully grown women much But in this movie, Rene Russo enters that very slim category for me, with Michelle Pfeiffer, of older women that just make my insides turn to jelly. One of my favourite moments in this movie is early on, for Russo anyway, who enters late in the story – for about 15 minutes, her character is wearing sunglasses, drinking some kind of herbal beverage instead of coffee, making a point of the fact she’s “on London time,” making it abundantly clear that she doesn’t give two sh*ts about this case, it holds no interest for her whatsoever, and she’s not going to be here long; then, Crown sparks her interest, and within seconds, she has a can of Pepsi popped open, her jacket off, and she’s completely engaged in the scene.

I haven’t seen the original movie yet because I really don’t think I’ll like it – certainly at least not as much as this one. If there’s one thing I will like about it, though, it’s Michel Legrand’s score. But I’m not sure that it could be better than Bill Conti’s music here. It’s one of my favourite parts of the movie. It’s at once classic, then two seconds later, almost shockingly modern.

There’s just nothing about this movie that I dislike. It has everything that just drives me potty, from all the things I’ve mentioned above, to the seriously passionate sex scenes, with anti-heroes and villains with hearts and an ending that just leaves you beaming. The whole thing’s so completely full of energy. I love it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 15th, 2005 at 11:41 pm and is filed under 5 hearts, Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.