Copyright 1997-2007 Omniture, Inc. More info available at Kevin Costner and William Hurt on the set of rsquo;Mr. Brooks.
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ldquo;The hunger has returned to Mr. Brooks, rdquo; an opening title tells us in the thriller ldquo;Mr. Brooks.
rdquo;
Indeed it has.
Mr. Brooks, a doting dad, devoted husband and Portland, Ore.
, cardboard-box tycoon and ldquo;Man of the Year, rdquo; gets his jollies killing couples in the act of love.
But it rsquo;s been years since he rsquo;s been ldquo;The Thumb Print Killer, rdquo; knocking off people, posing them rudely and leaving their bloody thumbprints as a calling card.
He goes to AA meetings, whispers the ldquo;Grant me the serenity rdquo; prayer and tries to keep it under control.
But there rsquo;s this voice, this guy mdash; Marshall mdash; that only Mr. Brooks sees. And since that guy is played by Oscar winner William Hurt, and Mr.
Brooks is merely fellow Oscar-winner Kevin Costner, Mr. Brooks listens.
This intriguing but inept thriller, directed by the writer of ldquo;Starman, rdquo; ldquo;Stand By Me rdquo; and some pretty awful movies in the decades since those, packages sex, violence, a feisty and filthy-rich cop played by Demi Moore, a wannabe-serial killer along for the ride (Dane Cook) and no less than three actual murderers on the prowl for us to keep track of at any one time.
Because in addition to Mr. Brooks, there rsquo;s a mass murderer named ldquo;The Hangman rdquo; that Demi Moore rsquo;s cop once put away. He has escaped and is looking for revenge.
And a third killer turns up in the second act.
The cop is going through a messy divorce from a pretty-boy golddigger who could be a cast-off from a gay soap opera. The naive but just-cunning-enough wannabe killer has dirt on Mr.
Brooks and wants to learn the killing trade, preferably without Mr. Brooks killing him.
And Mr.
Brooks, ldquo;serenity rdquo; prayers notwithstanding, can rsquo;t fight the feeling any more.
Yes, they buy their plot in bulk at MGM these days.
But there rsquo;s real pleasure in watching the always-a-little-stiff Mr.
Costner try to give this guy humor and edge, and try that stuff out on the old scenery-chewer Mr. Hurt. There are moments when Brooks and Marshall try out their morbid wit on one another and laugh each other silly.
Costner is perfectly credible as a meticulous serial killer. He rsquo;s just not an interesting one.
Moore is playing a cliche, and she isn rsquo;t a good enough actress to hide the fact that she knows it.
Cook is a mediocre actor whose track record for turkeys ( ldquo;Employee of the Month rdquo;) is unerring.
Director Bruce A. Evans handles a few moments of violence well.
But he has so much killing to keep track of, on screen and off, that he loses the plot thread, leaves out back story and crime details that we need to keep up and generally makes a hash of everything except the little two-character scenes mdash; Hurt, purring, and Costner trying to be menacing without seeming menacing alongside him.
Hurt is less fun here than he was in ldquo;A History of Violence. rdquo; But the real odd choice is Costner rsquo;s, more delusional than heroically risky.
Costner may have ldquo;the hunger rdquo; to play cold-eyed killers. He rsquo;s tried it before, in ldquo;3000 Miles to Graceland, rdquo; ldquo;A Perfect World, rdquo; even in ldquo;Water World. rdquo;
But he has yet to pull one off.
Starring: Kevin Costner, William Hurt, Demi Moore, Dane Cook, Marg Helgenberger and Danielle Panabaker
Directed by: Bruce A.
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