Mr. Brooks

If you feel like me that Kevin Costner hasn't had a good movie since "Tin Cup", be advised. "Mr. Brooks" is the movie to see if you want to be convinced that great actors know their jobs is to convince audiences. William Hurt and Costner have some of best two man scenes I've seen on screen in years.

"Mr. Brooks" is a buddy movie. Costner's character trades quips and companionship with a mysterious stranger who appears in cars, garages, locked rooms and everywhere with particular insight about what's happening to Mr. Brooks. At some points in time and in certain situations, Marshall (Hurt) is the master.

The film relies on simple dialogue and straightforward dramatic editing. No MTV music, no sexed up crime sprees, no CSI light shows and designer wardrobes at the forensics labs. Mr. Brooks is the former Oregon businessman of the year whose family has moved quickly to shield the pregnancy of his college age daughter.

But we find that Costner's family man and father has a secret. He is the notorious fingerprint Killer. But by trammeling his killing desire in an AA program he believes he can control the monster. The William Hurt character plays the killing monster, the noble savage who knowingly pursues murder as a compelling need.

We are worried for Mr. Brooks, and we care about the people in his world. The film is a mood piece that fosters reasonable suspension of disbelief that a killer as smart and conflicted as Brooks could outdistance the distracted pursuit of a cop like Moore. It also bring various point of moral conflict into intersection with dramatic physical conflict.

It's fantastically eerie where Costner says "Well, well well. What would life be without surprises". There is no shock angle, no cut scenes or intercut dynamics. The quiet exchange of dialogue is chilling because it relies on the sense of three men in the car with only one of them knowing what is really going on.