Sleekly shot thriller in which a daytime executive/nighttime serial killer (a subtle Kevin Costner), being blackmailed by a blood-lusting photographer (Dane Cook), suspects his own daughter (Danielle Panabaker) of homicidal tendencies while a gritty police detective (Demi Moore) doggedly seeks to nail the guilty party. Co-writer and director Bruce A. Evans fashions a trashy but chilling melodrama enhanced by William Hurt's sly performance as the serial killer's satanic alter ego, determined to control the conscience-stricken killer. A repeated sex scene with full female nudity, some gory violence, suicide, occasional profanity and recurring rough language. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. (R) 2007
Densely plotted, sleekly shot and crackling with bursts of dark humor, "Mr. Brooks" (MGM) tracks the trajectory of a serial killer in crisis.
Newly feted as "Man of the Year" in Portland, Ore., Earl Brooks is more than a wealthy executive with an adoring wife (Marg Helgenberger) and coed daughter (Danielle Panabaker); he's a killer. With his conjured-up alter ego, the evil Marshall (William Hurt), the meticulous planning of the killings and the cleanup afterward have time and again left the police dumbfounded as to the identity of the so-called "Thumbprint Killer."
Earl, however, seems to have a conscience. He's abstained from murder for two years, prays frequently and attends regular Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to resist his particular "addiction." But now Marshall has driven him to shoot another couple during their bedroom intimacy. Only this time, Earl neglected to close the drapes and the couple's neighbor turned blackmailer, Smith (Dane Cook), took snapshots of the slaughter.
No ordinary blackmailer, Smith seeks not cold hard cash but the sick thrill of riding shotgun with Earl at his next kill, and the sooner the better.
Back at home, Earl's daughter Jane returns suddenly from college, announcing she has dropped out, and admitting later she's pregnant and considering an abortion, against her parents' wishes. Yet Earl suspects something else is going on with Jane and soon begins to fear she may be harboring homicidal tendencies of her own.
Meanwhile, Detective Tracy Atwood (Demi Moore), gritting her teeth through a bitter divorce, is dead set on catching the serial killer who has eluded her for years, and she thinks Smith is hiding something. But she's the one who should be hiding, as another mass murderer she put away has escaped and has her in his cross hairs.
Co-written (with Raynold Gideon) and directed by Bruce A. Evans, the movie is, paradoxically, both classy and trashy. It succeeds as absorbing if mindless entertainment -- and at least Earl admits his actions are grievous sins, unlike the average movie murderer.
But this is not an uplifting yarn of redemption. In fact, the film's guilty pleasure is in savoring the appallingly witty exchanges between Costner and Hurt's characters. Costner brings a fair amount of depth to his character in a nicely understated performance and he and the pitch-perfect Hurt never seem to get in each other's way.
Visually, the movie shows off a shimmering film-noir patina as the plot thickens (at times to distraction with Moore's predicament) and the pace moves steadily along to its apparently bizarre ending. But the ending is not quite what it seems to be, just as Earl is so much more than he seems to be. Or more properly put, so much less than everyone around him is led to believe.
The film contains a repeated sex scene with full female nudity, some gory violence, suicide, occasional profanity and recurring rough language. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Movies have been evaluated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting according to artistic
merit and moral suitability. The reviews include the USCCB rating,
the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief
synopsis of the movie.
The classifications are as follows:
- A-I -- general patronage;
- A-II -- adults and adolescents;
- A-III -- adults;
- A-IV**
- L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
- O -- morally offensive.
** Discontinued classification. All archived movies that were originally in the A-IV category are now classified as L.