Consider Mr. Brooks: a successful businessman; a generous philanthropist; a loving father and devoted husband. Seemingly, he's perfect. But Mr. Brooks has a secret--he is an insatiable serial killer, so lethally clever that no one has ever suspected him--until now. Earl Brooks is a man who has managed to keep his two incompatible worlds from intersecting by controlling his cunning, wicked alter ego Marshall. But now, as Mr. Brooks succumbs to one last murderous urge, an amateur photographer witnesses the crime. Suddenly Brooks finds himself entangled in the dark agenda of an opportunistic bystander, as well as hunted by the unorthodox and tenacious detective Tracy Atwood. Can Mr. Brooks outsmart his adversaries and conceal his shocking double life from his wife and daughter--or will someone expose his crimes and his identity once and for all?

What makes Mr. Brooks work when in all fairness it should have failed, as at first glance it just appears to be another serial killer movie, well two things actually. The first one is Kevin Costner, this movie is so atypical of what you have come to know and love about Costner that to see him as a serial killer and actually believe that he could be one is downright fantastic. He is so cool, so cold and so tormented by the killings that he just captures the screen and takes you on a mad ride of depravity and murder that you walk away from the movie stunned. They couldn’t have sold the movie like a Zodiac where Costner is this madman killer, no they sold the movie as Costner as a good standing father and business man that also kills and is tortured by the need to kill and the desire to want to stop all the killings. This works on so many levels and on levels that Costner pulls off magnificently.

The second thing that makes the movie work is the unique twist on how killing can be an addiction like any other addiction whether it be drugs or alcohol. Mr. Brooks takes time out of his busy schedule of family and murder to attend AA meetings in an effort to stop his desire, his need, his addiction for murder. I mean that is a unique idea that you haven’t seen before, sure you have seen serial killer movies, sometimes two or three times a year but what can make a movie from just you run of the mill movie to something unique is by still finding a twist, still finding something new in an otherwise tired and overused genre. It’s what makes the movie so good, so different and so much fun to watch.

While not new, William Hurt as Costner’s serial killer persona was always a great addition to the movie. Hurt can pull of an evil that Costner would have never been able to do by himself. It also allows you as the audience to slip into Mr. Brooks mind from the conversations held between the two halves of Costner’s persona and fills in all the gaps that would be missing otherwise. It’s like reading a novel versus seeing a movie, in a novel we are able to know what the characters are thinking and in a movie normally only what they are doing. Hurt gives us that novel feeling, as we know what Mr. Brooks is thinking as he is arguing with himself about killing, life and his family. It is a fantastic addition to an already good movie.

It’s kind of ironic but I just can’t see any other actor doing such a good job as Kevin Costner did because the role was perfect for him. By being atypical to everything we have seen from him the past it further emphasizes the split in his persona, we can see the family man but we can also see the killer. And he is so organized, so analytical he is what you would think the perfect serial killer should be. Demi Moore’s character wasn’t really needed though as it was just to give a break from the action and the story and could have probably been done away with. But Dane Cook plays a perfect part as the guy you can’t wait to see get his come uppings and someone you love to hate throughout the movie. And without ruining the ending the movie ends how I would want it to end, not in the typical cookie cutter Hollywood fashion but in it’s own way and with the same unique feeling the movie had throughout. A cookie cutter ending would have never worked because the movie isn’t your cookie cutter kind of serial killer movie.

Grade: B+