There Are Worse Hobbies Than Golf
Written: Jun 06 '07 (Updated Jun 06 '07)
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: emotionally satisfying, with good subplots and excellent performances
Cons: shamelessly steals from three other films, slow pace, not so much shocking as entertaining
The Bottom Line: This is a somewhat bland ripoff of American Psycho, Collateral and Red Dragon but it's still interesting and well acted.
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| bilavideo's Full Review: Mr. Brooks |
There's a darkness to Kevin Costner that co-exists with the light - at least when it comes to the roles he plays. Whether it's a conscious decision to avoid Meg Ryannia or a working out of some inner demons, Costner has balanced his boy-scout roles (Field of Dreams, Dances with Wolves, The Untouchables) with darker stuff (A Perfect World, 3000 Miles to Graceland, Wyatt Earp). Costner is no stranger to the dark and ruthless, which makes him the perfect character to play Mr. Brooks.
When I first conceived of this review, I thought of calling it a triple feature, in honor of the three films that inform its structure. Like American Psycho, Mr. Brooks is a film about a respected businessman who goes a little Batman in some very gruesome ways. Like Collateral, it's also a dark buddy film, where a wolf shows a sheep how steak gets done. Finally, like Red Dragon, this is a film about a detective with a highly-developed sense of intuition. In fact, Detective Tracy Atwood (Demi Moore) is a composite of two Thomas Harris characters: Will Graham (whose Red-Dragon tour of a murder scene is practically line-for-line) and Clarice Starling (whose need for daddy-approval matches the motivations and energy of this goddess of female cops).
I'm not usually kind or gentle to Hollywood ripoffs, and Mr. Brooks is clearly that. But from time to time, even a duplicate bears such excellent craftsmanship that it merits praise. If nothing else, this film synthesizes the plots from other films into something new that feels emotionally complete.
Earl Brooks (Kevin Costner) is a celebrated businessman, the community's "Man of the Year." But he's also a sociopath who likes to shoot strangers and arrange them into poses, to the head-scratching fascination of Detective Tracy Atwood (Demi Moore), whose investigatory efforts are being hampered by the shenanigans of her ex, Jesse (Jason Lewis) and his lawyer (Reiko Aylesworth from Six Feet Under).
The plot thickens when Brooks' life takes a double hit. The first is getting noticed, during his own flagrante delicto, by Mr. Smith (Dane Cook), who has smoking-gun pictures of Mr. Brooks and his smoking gun. But Mr. Smith doesn't want money. He wants lessons. Specifically, he wants to go along on Mr. Brooks' next hit. At the same time, Mr. Brooks is having trouble at home. His daughter, Jane (Danielle Panabaker), wants to quit college and move home, but for reasons she's not disclosing. (Giving the daughter the name, Jane, is another uncomfortable similarity between this film and its inspirations, reminding us of the daughter in American Beauty, another film about the dark side of suburbia).
I don't want to give away all of the plot points in this film. You have enough to get a taste of where it's going. The bottom line is that writer-director Bruce A. Evans (Kuffs) gives us eye candy and subplots that make this derivative fare a tasty morsel about hidden lives and hidden motives. I didn't like it as much as the films it scavenges, and the pace is a little slow, but there's something ironically soothing about the intersection between the marginal and the mundane. It reminded me of one of the last chapters of Stephen King's Hearts in Atlantis, though that tale sent a few more shivers down my spine. Mr. Brooks is less chilling than interesting, but in a season of stupid popcorn flicks, bloated to the max, this one "put me out of my misery."
P.S. Look for William Hurt's performance as Marshall, the personification of Mr. Brooks' craving to kill. Hurt, who is sometimes written off as a cold fish, comes out of his shell in a big way. His character, Marshall, is not so much a figure of warmth (A.I., The Village) as creepy hedonistic lust. Marshall is like the drinking buddy who drowns you in liquor and laughs to get you do something you'll regret in the morning. It's easily one of the best performances of William Hurt's career.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: None of the Above
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Pacing
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bilavideo
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Member: Bill Kilpatrick
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