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This One Doesn’t Babble Unless He’s Alone
By bukkhead | October 25, 2007
FILM REVIEW: ‘MR. BROOKS’
Written by Bruce A. Evans & Raynold Gideon
Directed by Bruce A. Evans
Rated R
120 mins.
I wanted to see Mr. Brooks when it came out originally, because it had Dane Cook in it. And it wasn’t a romantic comedy! Dane Cook was following the Robin Williams plan for doing movies! But then, well after it left theaters, I sorta got over my Cook-love. Don’t get me wrong, I still think they guy is one of the best stand-up comics out there. And I ain’t hatin’ cause he got popular. Chalk it up to a short attention span.
So when they fiancée brought it home from the Blockbuster, I was sorta enthused. I wasn’t sure I wanted to watch Kevin Costner, since I don’t think I’ve liked any of his movies enough to sit through them. But Wililam Hurt showed up, and he was very much not William Hurt, which I liked. And Kevin wasn’t very Kevin. He was a little, but not too much. Dane was still Dane, so call that one typecasting.
Mr. Brooks is about a serial killer with a conscious, one that argues with his id (made flesh and portrayed by Hurt). After a 2-year hiatus, “The Thumbprint Killer” strikes again, except this time, he’s caught. Sort of. An amateur photographer takes a few photos, and then demands to be let in on the fun.
Demi Moore is the cop trying to track the killer, as well as deal with a bad divorce from a womanizing husband who want some of her inherited millions. Oh, and she has keep an eye out for another serial killer whom she had “put-away” but who escaped from jail. She was pretty much Demi Moore through the whole movie, but that’s okay.
The only problem with all of this is that it is a bit contrived. I don’t mind contrivance, as a means to an end, but it’s got to give me more than just plot twists and surprise endings. If we could have seen more of the struggle between Mr. Brooks and his id, seen it go someplace deeper, more interesting, that would have been something (I don’t want to give it away, but there was another facet to his struggle, but it was just more contrivance).
And Dane wasn’t really given much of a role to do anything with. He did a fine job, he’s a natural, etc. I don’t blame him, or even director Bruce Evans. Wait, yes I do, because Evans wrote the movie too. Did he write a movie that he knew he could direct? Did he leave out the character stuff because, well, he had William Hurt after all, and he didn’t want to lose too much control?
Maybe. Whatever. Suffice it to say that, after the movie was over, however I was moved by this plot twist or that bit of cleverness, after a few minutes, that short attention span thing kicked in and I wasn’t too impressed. Pretty much the only scene that had any meat was a dream sequence, which in my book is a story-telling cheat.
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