Mr. Brooks, written and directed by Bruce Evans and starring Kevin Costner in the lead, seems less a psychological thriller to me than a statement about the human condition. In modern society, we tend to simplify and generalize people into categories.
He's a good father.
She's a Christian.
He's a blogger.
That woman's a college professor.
The kid's a great student.
How we typically define people seems incredibly limited. A good father could be a lousy husband, after all. A Christian could well be a bigot, and a blogger a Rhodes Scholar. (Well, it could happen.) A college professor could have no common sense, and a terrific student could be a cheater.
The human condition is more complicated than we sometimes like to admit.
Earl Brooks is complicated, too. He's a wealthy businessman who is devoted to his family and his community. He also happens to be a very methodical and quite prolific serial killer. Insightful enough to recognize he's addicted to the control that comes with stalking and killing, Brooks tries to fight the urges by using 12-step practices and a strong will. He can't refuse the compulsion to kill for long, however, and occasionally satisfies his blood-lust by choosing random couples to stalk and murder. He's known as "The Thumbprint Killer."
He's completely and utterly evil.
He's also a good father, an attentive husband, a successful businessman and a thoughtful civic leader.
William Hurt has a significant part as the blood-thirsty alter-ego of Mr. Brooks. The movie presents the internal dialogue that occurs between Costner and Hurt in a way that really illustrates just how dominant is this aspect of Brooks' personality. Duane Cook plays a schlep who figures out that Brooks is a murderer and tries to parlay that into a serial killer career of his own. Demi Moore plays a cop searching for Brooks in what was one of the two sub-plots of this movie that were unnecessary, and which only served to clutter up the flick.
Overall, Mr. Brooks was really creepy and above average. But only slightly above average.
5 comments:
Cool ... like the cheerleader's dad from "Heroes" ... sort of.
Any excuse to think of the indestructible cheerleader, eh, jedijawa. LOL
Thanks for your comments on my blog, Film Geek. I added you to my blogroll.
I didn't comment on the movie because I detest Kevin Costner.
Jedi: I guess. I've still never watched a full episode of Heroes. Which is strange, because it's a show I'd probably love.
Buzzardbilly: Thanks! I wasn't sure if you knew I was the same guy as the Jacknut. The duct tape on my face there can be misleading.
Hereoes is excellent...but tries my patience at times.
I enjoyed Mr. Brooks. It was better than my expectations and the relationship between him and Duane Cook was something i'd never seen before in a movie. The way Costner spoke and interacted with Hurt was also a new take on an old idea of one's split side personified.
I'll probably blog on this :-p
What a complicated movie. It reminded me of "A Beautiful Mind" except these two (or one)are really up to no good. It kept my attention throughout the movie.
I never figured out why the Engineer wanted to be a killer. I guess I took it a little personal.
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