Kevin Costner goes for a ride, accompanied only by his imaginary friend. We've all done it. Right? |
Cast: Kevin Costner (Earl Brooks), William Hurt (Marshall), Demi Moore (Detective Atwood), Dane Cook ("Mr. Smith"), Marg Helgenberger (Emma Brooks), Danielle Panabaker (Jane Brooks), Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Detective Hawkins)

Costner's Mr Brooks is a successful
business man and loving family man who also happens by night to be a serial
killer. The twist being throughout that he is accompanied in his crimes by his
imaginary friend, played with creepy relish by William Hurt. Brooks is consumed
by guilt from his "addiction", visiting AA and constantly claiming he
is ready to quit. The film opens with an unexpected curtain being left open
during a carefully prepared murder, leaving Brooks open to blackmail from an
eye witness with a taste for trying this murdering lark.
The film is performed with such guilty
and gleeful relish by Costner and Hurt that it's incredibly easy to be swept up
by its momentum and to forget that out hero is a serial murderer. The film is
very careful to give centre stage to the invention and intelligence of its
anti-hero which, combined with Costner's fundamental likeability as a
performer, are very attractive traits for any viewer. Only at a few points is
the darkness of Brooks explored, most prominently from Costner's near orgasmic
sigh and shoulder roll after committing the first murder of the film. Otherwise
the viewer is as seduced by this dark world as Brooks himself has been.
A sub plot about Brooks daughter
possibly inheriting her murderous inclinations is much less interesting but
does allow Costner to offer an amusing twist on the straight-as-an-arrow
American heroes he made his career playing. But it never engages as much as the
strange will-he-won't-he dance Brooks has with his blackmailer (a fantastic performance of scuzzy bravado
hiding cowardice from Dane Cook). Demi Moore also gives a surprisingly
effective performance as a hard as nails career copper chasing down the
murders.
But it's the performances of Hurt and
Costner that really lift this film up into the higher reaches of the second
tier of psychological thriller, along with the neat concept of the childhood
imaginary friend gone completely over to the bad. Hurt in particular is
terrific, in a performance that is part raging id monster part caring big
brother. A dark guilty pleasure I'm not surprised it is slowly gaining cult
status.
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