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Serial dad

A film as schizoid as its main character
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By Steffen Silvis
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
August 8th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Who better to give career advice? William Hurt and Kevin Costner in Mr. Brooks.
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Mr. Brooks

Directed by Bruce A. Evans
With Kevin Costner, Demi Moore, William Hurt and Dane Cook

Even after viewing Mr. Brooks I cannot tell you what it is exactly, as it’s a scrap bin of just about everything. Is it a dark, subversive comedy about America’s thrill for killers, or a straightforward police procedural thriller? Worse, is it a family drama?
Kevin Costner stars in a film about a cool, methodical serial killer from the upper-middle class, while Demi Moore stars in another film as a tough police detective chasing verminous, low-life murderers through back alleys, winding up in not a few car chases and shootouts. But how did these two films get spliced together?
That Costner’s Mr. Brooks character suffers from a split personality seems appropriate for this schizophrenic film, which suffers more shifts than Sybil. So it’s impossible to get a purchase on what the film is trying to accomplish — though it does seem as if director/writer Bruce A. Evans is eager to impart something to his audience. But what?
Portland, Oregon, appears to be a haven for serial killers, with representatives from each strata of society. Mr. Brooks himself is, at the opening of the film, being honored by the Portland Chamber of Commerce as its man of the year.
This tycoon of cardboard boxes seems to have a perfect life: a thriving business, a sleek, Modernist home, a devoted wife and loving daughter. He also has a secret friend, Marshall (William Hurt), who lives in Mr. Brooks’ head, and drives the man of the year to murder couples while they are having sex.
Mr. Brooks has tried to control Marshall by joining the local AA, where he is simply known as an “addict,” though the hits he’s after are slightly more specialized than those sought in the circle of winos and stoners surrounding him. Still, he’s been “clean” for years, until Marshall finally coaxes him out for a quick shot of mayhem on the very night of his award.
Police detective Tracy Atwood has a full plate of her own, what with a conniving ex-husband trying to ruin her financially while she’s on the lookout for an escaped bit of scum named Meeks, aka the Hangman, who has busted out of jail to hunt Atwood down. In the middle of this, she’s called to a murder scene that bears all the signs of having been masterminded by the infamous “thumbprint killer,” Mr. Brooks’ nom de gore.
These two stories do not so much intersect as collide at various junctures, as if one were channel-flicking between John Waters’ Serial Mom, Silence of the Lambs and TV Land salutes to Cagney and Lacey and Father Knows Best. Even if the film is occasionally effective in parts, it adds up to a disappointing whole.
In Mr. Brooks the “dark subversive comedy,” there is a wonderfully chilling relationship that develops between Brooks and his alter-egoist Marshall, with Costner and Hurt working exceedingly well off each other. Indeed, the film’s most pungent writing is exchanged between these two actors.
Mr. Brooks as “police procedural thriller” is rather clichéd, with action sequences that seem unapologetically small-screen. As Atwood, Moore is adequate, but it’s likely that most viewers will see her scenes as interruptions to the more interesting saga involving Brooks and Marshall, even though Brooks (like Hannibal Lecter) will come to have a begrudging respect for this woman detective.
Suddenly, however, another story is tossed our way. It seems that Brooks’ doting, pregnant daughter might also be a serial killer. There’s certainly room here for even greater satiric license (indeed, making Brooks “pro-life” is a nice touch). But, strangely, Evans opts for family drama. And so it is with a heavy heart that Brooks finds himself having to trudge down to California to try and cover up for his daughter’s sloppy hatchet job (literally). Here’s a dad who cares.
In interviews, Costner has suggested that Mr. Brooks might eventually be a trilogy. Eventually? Based on this film, it seems that the trilogy has already been made, and that a committee of chimps was hired to edit it. That, or perhaps Mr. Evans has his own secret friend who drives him to be careless with scissors.

Steffen Silvis can be reached at ssilvis@praguepost.com


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