costner in mind-messing psycho-thriller
Bob Ross“Mr. Brooks”
(R; 120 minutes)
Kevin Costner has generally stuck with good-guy roles. Except for his turns as violent crooks in “3000 Miles to Graceland” and “A Perfect World,” he plays mainly heroes, flawed and otherwise.
That’s probably why your instincts tell you to like him in “Mr. Brooks,” his latest crime thriller, even though he portrays a ruthless, meticulous serial killer who butchers his victims without a trace of remorse and then returns to his everyday life as a devoted family man and civic-award-winning pillar of the community.
Director and co-writer Bruce A. Evans has concocted one of those lurid, ludicrous psycho-chillers that burrows into your brain despite its inherently silly premise. And why not? The old invisible-friend gambit has worked in films before, from “Harvey” to “Secret Window” to “Fight Club.”
This time, we get William Hurt as Marshall, Earl’s super-sinister alter ego — a ghostly anti-conscience who urges Earl to commit murder after murder, satanically certain that his will must prevail.
Earl and Marshall converse openly, but no one can see or hear the exchanges. It’s a stagey device that works because Hurt and Costner are such fun to watch as the split personality of a very sick but controlled psychopath.
There’s more to it, of course. Dane Cook, best known for comedy, adds twists as an eager-beaver acolyte who gets more involved in Earl’s life than is safe for either of them. Marg Helgenberger, from TV’s “CSI,” plays Earl’s loving, unsuspecting wife, and Demi Moore has the plum role of the detective who gets closer to the truth than anyone has before.
The plot has enough scary bumps and sharp turns to keep audiences on edge, and the cast makes the most of this chance to make us shudder at the notion that we all harbor an evil being that would love to be set loose.
We give “Mr. Brooks” a bloody B.
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