Mr. Brooks

A stylish and sexy thriller, Mr. Brooks was a pleasant surprise on many fronts. The story has lots of twists and turns that require a certain suspension of belief, but once you give in it is both an entertaining and disturbing film.

Kevin Costner gives his best performance in years as the upstanding, pillar of the community with a secret, dark, demented side. Though we've seen this story many times before, director Bruce A. Evans treats the film with a certain freshness and flash that makes it stand out from the rest.

I would be remiss if I didn't start by highlighting the element that made this film a true gem for me: William Hurt's performance as the Costner's alter ego, Marshall. Hurt gives a performance that is not only greatly out of character for him, but is also so menacing and creepy that it is worthy of being remembered with the likes of Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter. Hurt's silver-tongued goading is enough to convince even the most pious of us to go out and do horrible, unspeakable acts (as Costner does).

Dane Cook gives an interesting performance as the sexually-perverse, voyeur turned killer who blackmails Costner's character to take him on his next murderous romp. At first I didn't care for Cook, but on a second viewing I began to appreciate the brilliant way in which he captured the immature, adolescent sexuality and impatient, impetuous nature of his character--a nice counterpoint to Costner's reserved, mature, and calculating Mr. Brooks. When Demi Moore is questioning Cook on his voyeuristic tendencies, almost praising him for his skills and cunning, you see a devilish grin come over his face as he fights the urge to beam and brag about it before passing it off as amusement for her line of questioning.

Demi Moore was great as the hard-nosed detective, but her role was not given enough weight and as a result, some of it comes off as cliched Hollywood fare. Had she had more to sink her teeth into, I think she could have created a very compelling and memorable character.

Evans treats Mr. Brooks with a style and flair that makes it come off as a cool, sexy thriller similar to American Psycho. The electronic music in the soundtrack is at times moody and menacing and at other times thumping and driving. The ending scene, however, with The Veils' "Vicious Traditions" is very powerful, and brilliantly matches the tone of the scene. It's along the lines of Malcolm McLaren's "About Her" remix at the end of Kill Bill, Vol. II, which is one of my top movie scene/music pairings ever.

I'm a little mixed about the ending though. I found it satisfying, but I almost wish that they had not ended it as a dream sequence because the previous ending was so shocking and unexpected, and it somehow seemed more fitting.

One problem I had with the film was the uneasy feeling that came over me when I realized that I was actually routing for a serial killer. It also made it seem to be in vogue to be a serial killer and that they are everywhere. I eventually realized, though, that it is just a movie, and it's not trying to make serial killing seem cool, it's just telling a story. It's kind of the same criticism that Bret Easton Ellis' book "American Psycho" received when it was first published: Is there, and should there be, a line that is crossed when a work of fiction ceases to be about telling a story and becomes a promotion of violence.

At the end of the day I side with the literary license to tell any story. For if we were to hold movies, music, or literature responsible for the acts they depicted, then not only would we have no more art, but we would also be ignoring the true problem: The fact that we live in a society that often fails to instill a proper moral and ethical foundation in its population. I would no more go on a serial killing spree after watching Mr. Brooks as I would pop a cap in someone's ass after watching Boyz in the Hood. The scary thing though, is that I believe that there are some people out there who may be inclined to do so.


Mr. Brooks (2007)
Starring: Kevin Costner, William Hurt, Dane Cook, Demi Moore
Directed by: Bruce A. Evans

(6 out of 7 skinks)