Mr. Brooks: A Movie Review
“Mr. Brooks.”
“Who?”
My wife held up the movie section of the paper and said, “Mr. Brooks. It’s a movie I want to go see.”
“Never heard of it.”
“Kevin Costner’s in it.”
“Oh? ‘Water World’ Ring any bells?”
As usual Mamma won and so we went to see “Mr. Brooks”, and let me tell you something right now… before you plop down your hard earned cash to go see this movie… I was riveted from beginning to end.
“Mr. Brooks” is a police/crime-drama/psycho-thriller and lives up to all of it. We start with Mr. Earl Brooks, (Kevin Costner), a model husband and father, a pleasant and successful man with an adoring and stunning wife, Emma, played by Marg Helgenberger, (she plays Catherine Willows on CSI: Las Vegas and I’ve been hooked on her since the first time I watched CSI). They have a daughter, Jane, (Danielle Panabaker), who is somewhat flaky but can do no wrong in daddy’s eyes.
Okay now, our Mr. Brooks, although loving and successful, attends AA meetings to try to help him with a slight addiction he has been struggling with… He likes to kill people. In fact, he is a serial killer known as the “Thumb Print” killer. Now, this is where it all gets really interesting. You see our Mr. Brooks has a mean alter ego that just fails to understand why Earl is trying so hard to stop killing. This alter ego is so real to Earl that he has a name; Mr. Brooks calls him Marshall, (Marshall is superbly played by William Hurt). The conversations Earl has with Marshall get so involved at times you wonder why nobody else notices until you remember… Marshall is in Mr. Brook’s head.
During one of his “kills” Mr. Brooks is spotted by a young man, Mr. Smith, (Dane Cook), which, rather than turn him in, decides he wants to join Mr. Brooks on the next mission. Okay, don’t want to give too much away there, you might pee your pants… like Mr. Smith.
No good crime movie is complete without an over-zealous, but good cop, a cop that, of course, has a myriad of personal problems, which affects the job. After all, marriage/divorce can be a pesky little thing when one is trying to solve a murder spree. And this is all made worse BECAUSE of an escaped killer that is out to even the score because Atwood is the one that sent him to prison and he, and his girlfriend, are stalking detective Atwood. Don’t get lost on me, there’s more… Or should I say Moore? Oh, did I fail to mention that the Detective is Detective Tracy Atwood played by the beautiful Demi Moore? Well, I was bedazzled. Anyway, her problems are compounded by the fact that her much younger husband is out for mucho bucks in the divorce because our Detective Atwood inherited about $60 million from her daddy.
Left anything out? Hmm, let me see… Oh yes, Jane, the loving daughter. Jane comes home from college because she wants to quit school and work for daddy, our Mr. Brooks. Well, as it turns out, Jane’s knocked up and daddy starts to get this bad feeling that little Janey has inherited daddy’s addiction. Hmm, did she?
Anyway, the plot thickens up as the next escapade is planned and put off, (daddy is worried about Jane), and planned again, all the while, Detective Atwood is right on the heels of her suspect… Mr. Smith? Huh?
During her investigation she nearly gets killed by her stalker and is almost taken into custody because of the public death wish she tossed out at her ex-to-be. And he ends up dead in what looks like a copy-cat "Thumb-Print" job.
To be honest I could see where this movie could have ended up being a bomb, instead, an excellent performance by Costner and some great directing pulled it out of the hat. What you end up with is a credible story about a really nice guy that has quite a secret. And William Hurt is marvelous as the alter ego, the conversations they have are entertaining, for example:
Mr. Earl Brooks: [about Mr. Smith] Maybe I should drive over there and pick him up.
Marshall: No, just honk. Maybe he'll get killed crossing the street. Save us the mess of doing it.
[Both start laughing. Then, Mr. Brooks honks the horn and Mr. Smith nearly gets hit by a car while crossing]
Mr. Earl Brooks: Almost.
I was hooked on this movie right from the beginning the very last, shocking scene with Mr. Brooks and his loving daughter Jane… No, wait, that wasn’t it, the last scene was… fascinating.
I give it 4½ Clouds out of 5. Go see it, if you like police/drama/psycho-thrillers, you’ll love it. Even if you don’t, you’ll still like it.
