Earl Brooks (Kevin Costner) is a successful businessman. In fact, he’s Man of the Year. He makes lots of money, has a beautiful wife, Emma (Marg Helgenberger, whose talent is wasted here), and he has an alter ego, named Marshall (William Hurt), who encourages him to kill people, for no apparent reason. Mr. Brooks is a serial killer. And it appears that he’s been at it for quite some time.  

Detective Atwood (Demi Moore) works murder investigations and while she is able to get to the bottom of complex cases, her story is more about why she is a cop than how good of a cop she is. 

Atwood gets on the trail of Mr. Brooks, who has never been suspected in the past. He may be able to out maneuver her, even as he tries to protect his daughter who has dropped out of college and has a number of issues. 

Recent films this year such as Zodiac and Hannibal Rising were reasonably good stories about serial killers. One was based upon fact (Zodiac) and the other fantasy. Both worked in their own way, which provides a wide gulf between them and Mr. Brooks. We had hopes it would offer the thrills of Fracture yet it was much closer to the good trash of The Condemned (a B movie). 

William Hurt is chillingly good as Marshall, though we never know where he sprang from in Brooks’ imaginings, or where he goes within the man when he’s not darkening the recesses of Brooks’ brain. The look of the film is first rate and there are a few moments that will cause you to jump in your seat. This violent film has no redeeming value, and we learn nothing about the characters. Most important, we didn’t feel that we learned anything about the deviant mind. Not even a lousy excuse is offered for this bad behavior.  

George’s Take: I liked the film better than Pam but neither of us embraced it. It’s as sick as many serial killer films but the motivation of the two serial killers in the film (Brooks you discover right away and the other later) borders on being silly.  

Pam’s Take: Hey, we’ve got thick skin when it comes to things needing to be politically correct, but I found the reference to 12 step programs to be offensive. You say a little prayer and go right on killing? Not once did Brooks seem really conflicted. 

We expected more from this all star cast. Without doubt this is a step backwards for Kevin Costner in particular.