Mr Brooks film review

certificate_18

MR. BROOKS

Kevin Costner ditches his trademark All-American character for the serial killer thriller Mr. Brooks and instead dons a very dark mask indeed. But even such a radical choice of casting can't prevent this from becoming one of the year's daftest Hollywood releases.

Costner is the eponymous Brooks, by day an upstanding pillar of the community - so much so that at the beginning of the film he receives man of the year award from his local business colleagues - but by night a ruthless predator who prowls his city's streets looking for victims to kill. The police, led by Demi Moore, know they have a killer on their hands but have no idea who he is or how to catch him.

Brooks's split personality is made clear by the regular appearance of his evil alter ego in the guise of William Hurt, who goads him to make one last hit even though Brooks himself wants to retire his nighttime character and concentrate on his day job running a successful glass-making business. When things go wrong and he/they are rumbled by one Mr Smith (Dane Cook), both of Brooks' characters are forced into a tricky situation.

There are many attempts to create psychological back stories for everyone involved, including Moore's feisty and irregular detective and Brooks's own daughter. There's also a muddled plot involving a rival killer. But little of this is either very believable or thrilling.

Part of the problem is that it's hard to buy Costner as a ruthless killer. Indeed the casting might have been more successful if Hurt had played the title character and Costner his urbane evil twin. Writer/director Bruce Evans throws everything but the kitchen sink into his his script but it ends up as something of a convoluted mess, with a pointed climax that is more laughable than shocking.

Paul Hurley