Review of Mr. Brooks (2007) by Ruba E — 19 Oct 2009

MR. BROOKS is a very interesting twist on the rather overdone and often times cliched serial killer genre.

Kevin Costner, playing very much against type here, stars as Mr. Brooks, a man with split personalities (the other played expertly by William Hurt, who should have gotten an Oscar nomination for his turn here), who balances his time between family man with a great business and serial killer. Initially, the thought of Kevin Costner taking on such a role was a bit of a surprise, given the rest of his body of work, but it actually turned out to be a rather genius bit of casting. Costner is so unassuming as Mr. Brooks, playing him as a fairly average Joe, but one with uncontrollable compulsions. What this really turns out to be is a modern take on the PSYCHO concept, and it's done surprisingly well.

Also starring in the film is Demi Moore as the cop who is chasing after Costner's character. They put in an interesting subplot about her and her husband's divorce, but often times that feels more like a diversion from the far more interesting main plotline than something that we should actually be spending a good bit of time on. That subplot, however, does provide for a couple of humorous scenes, and at times does become important beyond its simply being written into the script, so it's fairly easy to let that slide.

Dane Cook also stars and, very much like Costner, is playing very much against type. There's nothing particularly funny about his character, which one would have expected from Cook being in the part. Like Costner, he plays his part rather straight and unassuming, despite his sudden desires to become a part of Mr. Brooks' scheme.

Ultimately, what MR. BROOKS plays as is something of a film version of DEXTER (at least to a certain extent). We get a lot of Mr. Brooks contemplating quitting what he's doing, we get a lot of the obsessive need to cover his tracks and other such activities, much like what is seen in Showtime's DEXTER. It's a much more subdued affair, however, void of a lot of the humor that can be found on the Showtime hit, and the performances in MR. BROOKS are superior to those found in DEXTER (which is not a criticism of the performances on DEXTER at all).

MR. BROOKS is, rather surprisingly, a very good film, and one that appears to have been rather overlooked. Given the current trends in horror films, I can see why it slipped through the cracks, because it is not something that relies particularly heavily on gore or violence, but it's an effective film in the genre nonetheless and deserved more attention than it ultimately got.