Friday Film Noir

Mr. Brooks (2007) is a gripping psychological thriller directed by Bruce A. Evans and written by Evans and Raynold Gideon. The film follows Earl Brooks (Kevin Costner), a Portland businessman and devoted family man who harbors a secret: he is an addictive serial killer known as “The Thumbprint Killer.” His compulsion is fed by his bloodthirsty alter ego, Marshall, played with morbid humor by William Hurt. Brooks finds his double life threatened when a voyeur, Mr. Smith (Dane Cook), photographs him committing a murder. Instead of reporting him, Smith blackmails Brooks into taking him on as a protégé. Complicating matters further, the relentless Detective Tracy Atwood (Demi Moore) is determined to solve the case. The central tension is derived from Brooks’s genuine, earnest struggle to quit his violent “habit” while indulging the darkness embodied by Marshall.

The film was shot in Shreveport, Louisiana, despite the story being set in Portland, Oregon. The blackmailer role proved challenging, initially attaching Zach Braff before the part was filled by Dane Cook. The film also marks the second collaboration between Costner and William Hurt, although Costner’s part in their first film together, The Big Chill, was entirely edited out. William Hurt reportedly took the role of Marshall because he was intrigued by the idea of a character attending Addicts’ Anonymous meetings as a form of self-cure for his homicidal urges. Costner, who served as a producer, insisted on having final cut authority to prevent studio executives from “softening” the film’s harsh, violent elements. The film was originally planned as a trilogy. This vision explains the film’s open ending and multi-layered plot. The director intended the series to end with the ultimate tragedy: Earl Brooks killing both his daughter, Jane, and himself, recognizing that the family’s homicidal compulsion was a curse that could never be stopped.

2007 • R • 2h

Rotten Tomatoes: 56%

Holy Unknown Grade: A-

Worldwide Gross: 48M

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