Mr. Brooks

Kevin Costner is one of those actors that I never quite know what to expect from his movies. He’s had plenty of hits throughout his relatively long career, yet he’s also had his fair share of stinkers to balance things out. This is the man who made the terrific film’s “The Bodyguard” and “Wyatt Earp” that were well received by fans, yet followed them up with movies like “The Postman” and “Waterworld” that were utterly horrible. He’s the kind of actor that after certain movie roles such as, “Dragonfly”, you just want to go, “What the heck were you thinking when you made that movie? Did you actually think that sounded like a winner?” But then he’ll turn around and crank out a hit like “The Guardian” and you’ll feel like saying “Now that’s more like it. That was a good movie from start to finish.” Anyways, with all that being said, when I saw the trailers for Costner’s first truly villainous role in the thriller “Mr. Brooks”, I was truly intrigued to see just what he’d do with such a part, because if handled properly this could prove to be one of his best roles to date. Yet, at the same time I was a little skeptical about the quality of this obviously serious movie with the likes of Dane Cook in the film, I thought maybe Costner had once again chosen a stinker to follow up his last couple of hits.

“Mr. Brooks” is the story of a successful businessman named Earl Brooks (Kevin Costner) who has his own business, a lovely wife (Marg Helgenberger), and college age daughter, essentially he has a perfectly normal, happy life. But on the inside Earl struggles with a very dark, evil side that is embodied by a creation he calls Marshall (William Hurt). Earl struggles on a daily basis to overcome Marshall’s dark desires of murder, he prays often and attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings regularly, but both to no avail, in the end Marshall seems to win out, and Earl is growing tired of his weakness. During an attempt to sate Marshall’s thirst for blood, Earl makes a costly error by killing a couple whose window shades are open, and to Earl’s dismay a man across the street saw everything. Now that same man (Dane Cook) is blackmailing Earl into taking him along for the ride during his next murder, a fact that further complicates Earl’s life since he had decided the previous murder would be his last no matter what. On top of all of this a detective (Demi Moore), who is struggling through a nasty divorce, is on the trail of Earl, and will not rest until this elusive murderer is brought down once and for all.

As unsure as I was in regards to what my thoughts would be on “Mr. Brooks”, after watching the movie I must say that this film is definitely one of Kevin Costner’s best movies, and definitely his best performance to date. All of the actors in this movie are in exceptional form; each brings such richness to their individual characters making it easy to become completely enthralled in the movie. As I said Kevin Costner gives the best performance of his career, his character of Earl is so complex with so many different identities to comprise him, from businessman, to loving husband and father, to cold and calculating killer. Each identity Costner handled so well, of course most were not unfamiliar to him as he had played the businessman, husband and father in previous movies, but playing a killer is new territory and Costner plays it to eerie perfection. Each of the supporting actors were equally solid in their roles, with Dane Cook being the biggest surprise, who knew he had such a knack for drama. But the best supporting performance would have to be that of William Hurt’s devilish portrayal of Mr. Brooks’ dark side, Marshall. Hurt’s performance was so engaging that he stole every single scene he was in, and he delivered every line with a hint of malice and complete disregard for human life, that you’d swear if this guy was in complete control of Earl, he would be the kind of guy that would rather kill you than talk to you.

What’s surprising is that director Bruce A. Evans is by no means an accomplished director, with “Mr. Brooks” being only his second film to date, and the fact that most of his time behind the camera is spent as a writer and producer, but you wouldn’t know that by watching this film. Bruce A. Evans handled double duty on this film as both writer and director, and still managed to pull off an incredibly gripping crime drama mixed with a psychological thriller that will give you chills from start to finish.

“Mr. Brooks” is rated R for violence, language, and sexuality/nudity.