>>REVIEW
MR. BROOKS
STARRING Kevin Costner, William Hurt, Demi Moore and Marg Helgenberger
DIRECTED BY Bruce A. Evans
Opens Friday, June 1
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The comeback is a feat few actors achieve after a string of bad career choices and marriages. When it happens, it is sweet, oh so sweet. It is even sweeter when two actors do it at the same time, in the same movie. We have all waited for the day when Kevin Costner would stop making bad super-natural thrillers, and Demi Moore would stop making bad cameos. Well, that day has come, and though they may not be the comebacks of the century, both have proved why they were, once upon a time, the biggest and brightest stars in the sky. Costner and Moore star amongst a cast of heavyweights including William Hurt, Marg Helgenberger and a surprisingly good Dane Cook in Bruce A.Evans’s new film Mr Brooks. Costner stars as Mr. Earl Brooks, a wealthy, sociopathic serial killer struggling with his inner demons (with Hurt playing his inner alter-ego) and his deep desire to keep his family safe. After winning a "Man of the Year" award, Brooks embarks on another killing spree after a two-year hiatus. This time he gets lazy and makes a fatal error. Enter Cook’s Mr. Smith with an interesting blackmail deal. Then, when Brooks’s daughter drops out of school mysteriously and returns home, his life starts to unravel even farther. Moore plays the intricately drawn out Detective Atwood. It is so good to finally watch her act instead of running in slow motion and looking pretty. She is held back by a strange side-plot with an escaped serial killer, but is in otherwise fine form as she tracks down Brooks. The plot is well structured and complex, but manages to never trip over its own ambition. This is a classic murder mystery – stylish, smart and suspenseful. Though the ending may leave you feeling unsatisfied, it is a tense, wild ride all the way. Intricate character development sets this film apart from other murder mysteries. Evans has explored a side of serial killing that other films like American Psycho have failed to capture. He makes Costner’s villain human, flawed and, ultimately, someone who the audience pities. Evans relates the demonic side of serial killing to an addiction, one that brings the killer a drug-like high followed by a moral low. Costner is back, maybe not in a JFK sense, but he can certainly say he has moved past The Upside of Anger. |
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