Kevin Costner plays a man who hides his true desires and needs from everyone... "Mr. Brooks."
Hello Hivers, in the first week of the third edition of "League of Movies " we get into the world of suspense and terror focusing on the antagonists that we come to admire despite being ruthless killers, the theme of this week is "Behind the Mask", if you want to participate I invite you to check the post made by @wiseagent in the next Link
"Behind the Mr Brooks"
This 2007 film is perhaps not the most famous or recognized by the many followers of this genre of horror and suspense and is that I think the genre that is most identified with the psychological rather than the terrifying, which is why I always believed that there was great potential in its history as this film had everything to be more important than it became, The film starred Kevin Costner, Demi Moore, Dane Cook and William Hurt, three well-known actors with a career in movies and a comedian who was very famous at the time, but perhaps people were not attracted to the kind of story and film making that was not a success as expected, so plans to see one or two more sequels were interrupted.
But it is time why my choice of this film and not another with famous killers and their representative masks, in "Mr Brooks " his story is based on just that, the use of a mask that hides the truth of a person, in this story we see a successful man both in his family life as a father and businessman, respected and loved by friends, employed and by the community where he makes his life, but deep down he hides a true and dark reality, his instincts are those of an incessant hunter, but who learned to live in a game of justifying or not the crimes he has done, wanting to have a duality in his mind whether to stop or to continue, but in the end succumbing to the pleasure of ending innocent lives.
This film is directed by director, screenwriter and writer Bruce A. Evans, who co-wrote the screenplay for this film with his co-worker Raynold Gideon, both writers achieved fame as screenwriters in the film "Stand by Me ", but "Mr. Brooks" would be the second film directed by Evans after "Kuffs (1992), an action comedy, this director was very associated with films with family messages, dramas and comedies and I think that step when making an adult story, A psychological thriller perhaps didn't have that vision that was required and had already been seen in several films for example in "The Silence of the Lambs" and its sequels, I think that lacked that touch of rawness to teach the story of a man who can live a double life being a father and family and at the same time a serial killer. I can't praise his work as a director because I really feel that he wasn't influential and didn't show something new, but his script and the story he created is something that I like very much, it's showing a person who is so sick that he can hide his reality and also have a moral struggle that even though he knows he's always going to lose, it doesn't stop him from wanting to feel something even though he knows he doesn't feel anything for anyone.
The other thing I liked was the performance of Kevin Costner and William Hurt, the interaction of both characters is fundamental, each scene they share is excellent, even though both are part of "Earl Brooks " each one shows many differences and similarities, Costner for example can play his character differently, one as a family man and businessman, another as the person who wants to stop killing and finally the one who surrenders to his true desires to kill, This last one is the one that always succumbs to the words, care and advice of "Marshall" played by Hurts, someone sadistic, without control, someone that society abhors, this is a face that only lives in Brooks' mind because it seems that even he abhors it because he cannot be as free as his alter ego, these two actors own this story and for me it will always be one of its positive points.
As I said before this film is not the most famous and it's not that we will see people dressed as this character on Halloween, but I think it is the one that sticks to a reality, many people pretend what they are not to society and show their true self to themselves, this story represents just that, the use of a mask to make those around you feel safe and the best thing is that they don't know how safe they are without knowing the real Brooks, who for me is a great character that surely didn't work at the time, since I always remember films like "Red Dragon" or the Netflix series "Mindhunter", where we see killers evolving step by step until they become a serial killer, instead in this film we can see the final or complete stage of that evolution, someone who as I already described feels so confident that he can create his own mental game of having morals or not to try to cure his addiction to killing, Knowing that their desires are uncontrollable, always thinking that they are smarter than everyone else, that is why this character or even "Dexter " himself show in the fiction what these people who seek to feel alive by killing others experience and at the same time they will seek to integrate into society and that it is better than wearing masks.
In the following weeks at "League of Movies " I want to invite @negrinalexandra and @cristiancaicedo, please remember to check the Link for the rules to follow.
