Mr. Brooks – Der Mörder in Dir (2007)

Mr. Brooks – Der Mörder in Dir: Directed by Bruce A. Evans. With Kevin Costner, Demi Moore, Dane Cook, William Hurt. A well-respected businessman is sometimes controlled by his murder and mayhem-loving alter ego.

“The main thing about Mr. Brooks that I love is that it is so convincing in its portrayal of the internal workings of a certain sort of mind, almost as if it were an inside story. Mr. Brooks is a character who is completely unsuspecting to anyone observing him, yet he is a completely different person beneath the skin. He is much more complex than a lot of mainstream audiences will realize upon first viewing. He has deep feelings for his family, which means heu0026#39;s capable of deep feelings. Yet he is completely aware of his manipulative and destructive capabilities and intermittently cannot help himself and must take advantage of them. I think the script is a truly brilliant rendering of a very realistic sort of personality that is so secretive that they can be found throughout the range of all human activity.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eKevin Costner having always been one of the most wooden actors in contemporary movies, I am very impressed that he hit the nail on the head with this very challenging and multi-layered character of Mr. Brooks, and in understanding him completely knew just how much of him to reserve for William Hurtu0026#39;s share, Hurt playing a figure nonexistent to anyone in the film other than Costner, representing the deepest, darkest thoughts of Mr. Brooks. The script and direction are very clear-cut and discern the dialogue between Costner and Hurt as the same character and not a split personality.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDemi Moore is affecting in her portrayal of a cop whose personal life calls upon the part of a personality that would urge with anger towards thoughts of murder and is able to suppress them. Itu0026#39;s maybe my favorite of all the performances Iu0026#39;ve seen of hers. There is lots of subtext in what appears to be a token cop role.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe most interesting casting choice, aside from the impressive comebacks by two aging former box-office magnets, is of comedian Dane Cook as a blackmailing witness to one of Mr. Brooksu0026#39;s murders. His character is a creative blend of voyeuristic and eagerly putzy, and Cook pulls it off very becomingly.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAs well as being a very gripping and unpredictable celebration of evil, I think a lot of extra credit is due to this film especially for holding its own at the box office during a summer of conglomerate box-office hogs like the second sequels to Pirates of the Caribbean, Shrek, Oceanu0026#39;s Eleven, and Spider-Man when it is actually very edgy and takes a lot of risks as a mainstream film.”