MR. BROOKS is the kind of suspense film that manages to hold your attention from the very start and then, just when you think you know where it's all going, you find out you've been duped. Midway through the film you realize you don't even know where the story is going with its many strands that don't seem to connect.
In other words, there's nothing predictable about the outcome but while that would ordinarily be a good thing, here the effect is a handicap because there are too many unexplained elements in the script and too many loose ends.
Nevertheless, some of it is very clever and intriguing, a sort of Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde story with KEVIN COSTNER struggling to be good and leave his bad deeds behind him but egged on by his alter ego (WILLIAM HURT) to kill again.
What the screenplay fails to do is to connect the three main stories that are being spun into one cohesive whole. As a result, at the end there's a letdown feeling that nothing has really been satisfactorily explained.
It's taut and suspenseful and should satisfy most fans of this genre, but it's a psychological thriller that would have been even better with a fully realized script.
The performances are fine. KEVIN COSTNER is especially good in some of the climactic scenes after a rather dull beginning but it's DANE COOK as Mr. Smith, the twisted and temperamental photographer who catches a murder on film and has a strange request, that gives the film its most intense moments as he tries to outfox the clever Mr. Brooks.
I've liked WILLIAM HURT in many other roles, but find his character more annoying and repelling than merely evil.
Summing up: A psychological thriller that is sometimes dull, sometimes riveting as it tries hard to rise above the level of a cluttered script and only partially succeeds. There's a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde flavor to the whole story. The Demi Moore sub-plot is totally out of whack with the rest of the story.
In other words, there's nothing predictable about the outcome but while that would ordinarily be a good thing, here the effect is a handicap because there are too many unexplained elements in the script and too many loose ends.
Nevertheless, some of it is very clever and intriguing, a sort of Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde story with KEVIN COSTNER struggling to be good and leave his bad deeds behind him but egged on by his alter ego (WILLIAM HURT) to kill again.
What the screenplay fails to do is to connect the three main stories that are being spun into one cohesive whole. As a result, at the end there's a letdown feeling that nothing has really been satisfactorily explained.
It's taut and suspenseful and should satisfy most fans of this genre, but it's a psychological thriller that would have been even better with a fully realized script.
The performances are fine. KEVIN COSTNER is especially good in some of the climactic scenes after a rather dull beginning but it's DANE COOK as Mr. Smith, the twisted and temperamental photographer who catches a murder on film and has a strange request, that gives the film its most intense moments as he tries to outfox the clever Mr. Brooks.
I've liked WILLIAM HURT in many other roles, but find his character more annoying and repelling than merely evil.
Summing up: A psychological thriller that is sometimes dull, sometimes riveting as it tries hard to rise above the level of a cluttered script and only partially succeeds. There's a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde flavor to the whole story. The Demi Moore sub-plot is totally out of whack with the rest of the story.