Review of Mr. Brooks (2007) by Carlos G — 14 Oct 2016

"Mr. Brooks" is the 2007 thriller drama film directed by Bruce A. Evans ("Stand by Me") and it's written by Evans and Raynold Gideon. The plot follows Earl Brooks (Mr. Brooks), played by Kevin Costner, a wealthy businessman, that is revealed to be a serial murder. He hasn't been active for 2 years, and one night gets the urge to kill once again. That night he is seen by one Mr. Smith, played by Dane Cock, who takes pictures of Earl in the act. Mr. Smith offers Earl a deal, where Earl lets Mr. Smith join in the murders or else Mr. Smith would give the pictures to the police. Mr. Brooks accepts the conditions as he joins Mr. Smith in car ride as they look for a victim. While that happens, a veteran detective named Tracy, played by Demi Moore, investigates Mr. Brook's recent murder, whilst trying to settle her divorce. The cast counts also with William Hurt as Marshall, Earl' "friend" and psychological alter ego, Marg Helgenberger as Emma, Earl's teenage daughter, and Danielle Panabaker as Jane Brooks, Earl's Wife.

"Mr. Brooks" offers nothing original to its genre, becoming nothing more than a poor man's "American Psycho". What director Bruce A. Evans does is, pick a semi-fresh, though interesting idea, that could work and turn it into a predictable, poor-executed and cliche-filled movie. The film's very first scenes are OK and give us hope for an interesting film, showing us William Hurt's great first impressions and Costner's quiet performance. Tough as the movie progresses it becomes a trainwreck, with four different subplots, two of em' involving our boring, cliche female movie cop, played by Demi Moore, wich is not our main character by the way. These several subplots are messy and interfere with the movie's construction. Because if you think about it, the movie does not present one main plot, it is dived by these four different subplots. We do have a main character tho, that beeing Mr. Brooks or Earl, and maybe the exploration of his psychological is the film's main objective, and that's not even that interesting as well, Mr. Brooks is just an ill man, with a charming imaginary friend that looks like William Hurt. As said, "American Psycho" is a much fresher pick and a better exploration of character.

As far as performances go, well... Our main man, Mr. Kevin Costner was a mixed bag. He was blank, at times looked like he was just reading from the script and saying it to the camera, no passion, and no heart. His best moments are his talks with William Hurt, these scenes beeing probably the film's best as well, where the actor looks more human and even more likable, but nothing great from "Dances with Wolves" actor and director. This is one of my first viewings of Costner, I'd say that he looks like an interesting performer and I would have to check more of his work maybe beeing better applied onto another project. Next to Costner doing a much more noticeable performance is actor William Hurt, playing his character with charm, doing a great job opposite to Costner. The cast counts too with Dane Cock, yeah, Dane Cook. He is not my ideal casting choice, he is ok, I guess, he just seems misplaced and could've easily been replaced with a better young actor. Too in the middle of this is Demi Moore, playing a generic, cliche character, I'd say it is not her fault, she did her best, but her character was a mess and did a big part to further mess up the movie's already messed plot.

As said above the film is really poor executed in regards to its construction of plot and character overall. It's several subplots fell like are just there to make the movie hit the two-hour mark. Everything regarding Mr. Brooks' daughter subplot end's up leading to nowhere but a horrible scene in the movie's final moments. As to detective Tracy's subplots, they're even more out of place. The first beeing her unnecessary divorce, with her ass h*** husband, that kept getting brought up every time the movie looked like it was getting interesting. The other beeing Meeks' (Matt Schulze) storyline. Meeks is just some random guy who escapes prison and, of course, is after Tracy. That plot too... leads up to know where. And finally, the history that looked the closest to the main plot, Mr. Brooks' and Mr. Smiths' plot. Definitely the most interesting and watchable plot, the history is unfortunately dragged out for way too long, and feels too anticlimactic as Smith and Brooks mostly just sit in their car arguing. And at the end, what could've maybe been a good ending to the film, in which Smith kills Brooks, is too, ruined by an expected, unsurprising, and way out of tone ending to Smiths character, that leads to an overall bad ending to the whole film.

"Mr. Brooks" is a big mess, with a messy story, boring and cliche characters, a bad script, and a lesson of what not to do with a possibly good idea. I'd say that "Mr. Brooks" is a waste of two perfectly good hours. Go and watch, or rewatch "American Psycho", it is not only a much better film but also a better everything.