Movie Review

Mr. Brooks

"Mr. Brooks" is a small film that comes on the heels of three bigger ones and opens next to what may be the year's biggest comedy; only with all this, it's not a movie that deserves to be lost in the shuffle. It's the year's most satisfying character study and also features Kevin Costner giving one of the best performances of the year, as well as one of the top three of his career.

He plays Brooks, the owner of a box factory who, as we first meet him, is getting an award by the Portland Chamber of Commerce. He has a beautiful wife (Marg Helgenberger) and daughter (Danielle Panabaker) and by the looks of the cars he drives and the home he keeps, business is good. Only he has what the movie describes as a hunger, an urge to kill. The hunger is placed in the human form of an imaginary accomplice played by William Hurt. For two years, Brooks has gone to support groups and meetings to rid himself of this urge and for a while it seems to have worked. Only on the night of his award, the urge comes back, which spells bad news for two gymnasts that catch his eye.

Things get complicated, however, when their next door neighbor, Mr Smith (Dane Cook), comes to Brook's office telling him he has pictures of the entire murder. Smith is a peeping tom who liked to watch the couple have sex with the blinds open, but now feels that murder is more to his liking. He blackmails Brooks into taking him on his next kill. Brooks has also caught the eye of a police detective, Tracy Atwood (Demi Moore), who worked the Brooks case two years ago and is even more consumed by it now that he has suddenly re-surfaced. Atwood is also going through a messy divorce and may have secrets of her own.

"Mr. Brooks" is a unique addition to the serial killer genre. Most movies will present their serial killers in a mentally unstable, out of control way. This is a character on the other hand who is calm and, in a way, very rational. His hunger to kill comes less from the brain and more from, for lack of a better word, his own balls. It's testosterone and adrenaline he seeks, and like most things produced below the waste, the brain is trying to counteract. This presents an interesting dynamic between Brooks, the brain, and Brooks, the testosterone. It also makes the scenes between Costner and Hurt some of the most chilling of the year. Hurt goes at his role with over the top, sadistic joy and Costner balances it perfectly. Costner makes him a man who takes pride in the fact that he can plan and execute a murder and not get caught but he also makes Brooks a withdrawn and desperate man looking for salvation. In the end you don't like him but you don't hate him either, you just feel fascinated by him.

Writer-director Bruce Evans also stages some very suspenseful scenes and the rest of the cast is fun to watch, it's just too bad they seem to have very little to do but play one-dimensional people. Demi Moore gives a strong performance, but really all she's called upon to do is act tough. Dane Cook works as a degenerate and Marg Helgenberger and Danielle Panabaker are two of the hottest older and younger actresses in Hollywood. Evans also makes a few missteps with his plotting, adding too many other killers than really neccesary. One seems to be shoehorned in here just for a random car chase. Otherwise the movie is basically action-free, which doesn't mean that it isn't thrilling though. The movie is about Brooks and in that regard we get a creepy character who never fails to keep us engaged.

Craig's Grade: B

A	10.9%
B	41.8%
C	31.8%
D	15.3%
F	0.3%