From inside the immoral madness of a killer s head comes an intensely dark drama that explores how a murderer can break the mold of what society imagines this type of person to be.
Mr. Brooks (Kevin Costner) is a charismatic neighbor, the owner of Brooks Box Company, and a responsible family man devoted to his wife Emma (Marg Helgenberger) and daughter Jane (Danielle Panabaker).
He receives businessman of the year awards and is an all around fantastic guy mdash; or is he a twisted serial killer? Well, the answer is yes to all the above, because he leads a double life. He is as successful in business as he is gruesome in crime.
This sinister side of him appears as his alter ego, an imaginary nameless id played by William Hurt who speaks to him and inspires him to kill. What s so cool about William Hurt s part is that he characterizes the little devil we all envision on our shoulder telling us to do something bad.
Of course, as the killings continue these murders can t go on without the police and media taking notice.
They label this madman the Thumbprint Killer because he likes to leave his victims thumbprints as evidence. Detective Tracy Atwood (Demi Moore) is hot on his trail, but seems to come up short. Mr.
Brooks is as clever as he is deadly. Demi Moore plays a rich woman who loves her job, but doesn t need her job. Her problem is a relentless husband seeking alimony.
She pulls off a good hard-nosed cop in this film, but as another escaped criminal known as Meeks, The Hangman Killer (Matt Schulze), joins the plot, Detective Atwood must track him down as well, so it dilutes the intensity of the hunt for The Thumbprint Killer/Mr. Brooks and gives action scenes to Det. Atwood which I found useless.
Another small subplot enters the movie when we find out that Janie Brooks suffers from the same killing illness as her daddy. As a college student, she solves problems with hatchet murders.
The film starts off with a great tension, but dwindles down to a complicated farce.
William Hurt was brilliant as the sinister conscience of Mr. Brooks and Kevin Costner was magnificent as the cool and complex villian you learn to like.
Directed by: Bruce A.
Evans
Running time: 120 minutes
Release date: June 1, 2007
Genre: Crime, Drama and Thriller
Distributor: MGM
MPAA Rating: R
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