Mr. Brooks

Mr. Brooks is a successful small businessman who started and grew his own box factory to the point where he has just won a local man of the year award. He has a lovely wife and a daughter in college. He seems to have it all, but he has one problem. He's an addict. And he's not the kind of addict who needs pills or alcohol or gambling to satisfy his craving. Instead, Mr. Brooks is addicted to murder.

He killed total strangers at various intervals for years. And he always carefully planned each crime. But he gets no satisfaction from killing, he's simply driven to do it by his addiction. It's been two years since his last killing, and he's tried to keep the addiction at bay by going to AA. He merely tells the group "I'm an addict". You'd think that eventually the group at AA would press him for more details than that, but I digress.

William Hurt is Brooks's alter ego. And it works because Hurt is not just playing the part of Brooks that wants to kill, like some maniac. Instead, this guy is also somebody who talks to Brooks, as much as you can talk to yourself. He sympathizes and gives Brooks a hug when he breaks down over a huge family dilemma he's facing at one point.

The problem is that, after two years, Brooks gives in to his addiction and kills again. But this time he makes a mistake. He doesn't notice that the curtains are open when he commits the double homicide in the victims' loft apartment. Complications ensue.

Demi Moore plays a dogged homicide detective who is after this serial killer, and at first I wondered why there were so many details of her life in her thread of the plot - her inherited wealth, the gold-digging husband who is trying to drain her dry in the divorce setllement, the prison escapee who wants her dead. But then the whole thing comes together at the end magnificently.

I'd say this rates right up there as one of my favorite Costner films. He is terrific as a guy who looks and acts so incredibly predictable and reliable in his daily life. Nobody would ever suspect. He even protests his daughter's announcement that she wants to terminate her unplanned pregnancy. Also kudos to Dane Cook as Mr. Smith, a role that proves that it may take brains to be a mechanical engineer, but that doesn't necessarily mean it requires common sense.

I saw the trailer for this one, and thought it was an interesting premise, but Costner movies are so hit or miss. He's the LAST person on earth that I'd expect to be playing a serial killer. His demeanor is too gentle and even. WOW was I right, and that's what makes the movie. That slow, gentle, deliberate pace gives it a surreal sense of unease that a lesser actor couldn't match. It is exactly his everyman persona that makes this movie work.

In the tone of the movie, I was thrown by Costner's previous work as well. He's best known for somewhat light and under-realized fare. Mr. Brooks is anything but. This is a very, very dark movie, to the point that it's uncomfortable in places.

Kudos as well to William Hurt, who isn't known for playing this sort of role either. His character could easily descend into cliché, but it doesn't. He holds the right note, and the chemistry between him and Costner is tangible.

Over the top torture/gorefests have been the flavor of the month. Don't get me wrong -- I love High Tension and it's ilk, but it's nice to see a film that doesn't have to go for the visceral reaction to achieve it's tension. This is an assault to the mind, not the eyes, and it's exceptionally well done.

Really captivating film with no dull moments that I can think of. The film is pieced together well. The cast of Demi Moore and other supporting cast members did a great job too. I personally wanted some parts built on more like his daughter's story and their relationship, why he had killed his first victims and I would have preferred a different ending, but all round a good fiom worth watching.

The main thing about Mr. Brooks that I love is that it is so convincing in its portrayal of the internal workings of a certain sort of mind, almost as if it were an inside story. Mr. Brooks is a character who is completely unsuspecting to anyone observing him, yet he is a completely different person beneath the skin. He is much more complex than a lot of mainstream audiences will realize upon first viewing. He has deep feelings for his family, which means he's capable of deep feelings. Yet he is completely aware of his manipulative and destructive capabilities and intermittently cannot help himself and must take advantage of them. I think the script is a truly brilliant rendering of a very realistic sort of personality that is so secretive that they can be found throughout the range of all human activity.

Kevin Costner having always been one of the most wooden actors in contemporary movies, I am very impressed that he hit the nail on the head with this very challenging and multi-layered character of Mr. Brooks, and in understanding him completely knew just how much of him to reserve for William Hurt's share, Hurt playing a figure nonexistent to anyone in the film other than Costner, representing the deepest, darkest thoughts of Mr. Brooks. The script and direction are very clear-cut and discern the dialogue between Costner and Hurt as the same character and not a split personality.

Demi Moore is affecting in her portrayal of a cop whose personal life calls upon the part of a personality that would urge with anger towards thoughts of murder and is able to suppress them. It's maybe my favorite of all the performances I've seen of hers. There is lots of subtext in what appears to be a token cop role.

The most interesting casting choice, aside from the impressive comebacks by two aging former box-office magnets, is of comedian Dane Cook as a blackmailing witness to one of Mr. Brooks's murders. His character is a creative blend of voyeuristic and eagerly putzy, and Cook pulls it off very becomingly.

As well as being a very gripping and unpredictable celebration of evil, I think a lot of extra credit is due to this film especially for holding its own at the box office during a summer of conglomerate box-office hogs like the second sequels to Pirates of the Caribbean, Shrek, Ocean's Eleven, and Spider-Man when it is actually very edgy and takes a lot of risks as a mainstream film.

This movie was not what I expected, but in a good way. I saw that Kevin Costner was in it, and figured it would be a light-hearted drama. Then I read that it was suspense, and figured he was a good-guy spy or something. Not so.

I don't want to spoil exactly what Mr. Brooks is (even though it's revealed in the early part of the movie), but let's just say he's not a good guy. He is cold, brilliant, methodical, and heartless. Definitely not the traits we normally expect from Kevin Costner. And yet, it's fascinating to watch. I found myself rooting for him, and then had to kick myself because his character is so despicable. Top notch acting from him.

Dane Cook seems an odd casting choice for a suspense thriller, and yet he is believable in his role as a cowardly average joe trying to get the better of Mr. Brooks.

This movie is surprisingly graphic and brutal in some scenes. Yet it is so engrossing that you will be hooked on every twist and turn (and there are some good ones).

Not for the faint of heart, not your normal Costner flick, but a very good movie.