Mr. Brooks
Just like the amateur criminal expert, the amateur movie expert is always looking for a challenging case, an opponent worthy of his steel. I had been rather bored of late, with the pile of highly commercial blockbusters pushing everything else out of the theaters, when a knock came at my figurative movie door. I considered the knock . . . it sounded like one of those former film superstars who raised himself to the level that he could pick, choose, and even finance his own film. Yes, Kevin Costner is back in theaters again, and this time he’s set us up to unravel the matter of Mr. Brooks, serial killer on the wagon.
Mr. Brooks is a very ambitious character, and I can see why Kevin Costner chose him. He’s a serial killer. He’s also a father, a successful businessman, and a good husband. And unlike most serial killers, this movie wants us to sympathize with him, a task at which it succeeds. The device by which we come to relate to Mr. Brooks is that he doesn’t really want to be a serial killer. He just has an invisible friend named Marshall, aptly played by William Hurt, who seems to be the chummy embodiment of his thrill-killer side, the old drinking buddy who goes “C’mon, what will one more hurt?”
Add in the next generation, Dane Cooks as the wannabee apprentice serial killer and Danielle Panabaker as the daughter with a dark secret, and Mr. Brooks’s clean and simple serial-killer life starts to get messy. Demi Moore shows up as a wealthy police detective with her own problems (as well as yet another serial killer after her), and the end result is a fine stew of life in the land of Hollywood serial killers. One almost expects Hannibal Lechter to move in down the street.
The main mystery to be solved in “Mr. Brooks” is just what will happen next in all this, and while the story does have an ending, I don’t consider it the full fruition of all the work that went in to setting up this very interesting character and his world. In the end, it’s a strange, dark character piece and not a tightly plotted thriller. It’s the sort of movie that makes you ponder it when it’s over, if you’re not too repulsed by its occasional extravagance (after a fairly bloodless two hours, there is a quite gory bit near the end).
Worth seeing, if you’re into Costner, serial killer movies, or are just desperately looking for a topless scene in the summer bubble-gum fare.
What Great-grandfather Sherlock might have said:
“The fellow is a genius in his way, and would have made his mark in some more savoury trade.”
Past Investigations
An Introduction to
Mr. Sherlock Holmes IV