"Mr. Brooks" is also an old movie. I have nothing to do at home during the Spring Festival, so I dug out these old movies and revisited them. At first glance, "Mr. Brooks" is about a murderer with a split personality. In this type of film, there is "Deadly ID", which tells the story of a murderer with ten split personalities. After treatment by a psychiatrist, the strongest personality "killed" the other nine personalities. The king of best-selling novels, Sidney Shelton, also wrote a novel about split personalities, "Tell Me Your Dreams," about a girl with three split personalities. But the content is nothing more than murder, sex, incest and hatred.
In "Mr. Brooks", the actor Earl Brooks is a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist. But what people don't know is that he is also a serial killer with a homicidal addiction. Police named him the "thumb killer" because he liked to put the victim's thumbprint on the lamp shade or elsewhere in the room after killing a man. He has only one split personality named Marshall.
At the beginning of the film, Mr. Brooks is named Businessman of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce. At this point, it had been two years since his last murder. For two years, he tried to get rid of his blood addiction by attending a church addict support group. However, Marshall never let him go, and kept pestering him to kill again. In fact, Mr. Brooks has already identified the next victim: a couple. He also made all the preparations for the murder, that is to say, he had already visited the couple's home. After the awards show, Brooks told his wife that he still wanted to play his hobby, pottery, in his own little world. That Xiaotiandi is another building separate from his residence. It has a computer with internet access, a full set of pottery-making equipment, and a full set of killing equipment he hides in a hidden compartment: guns, clothing, various ID documents, and so on. That night, he changed his clothes, put on his equipment, and drove an old Volvo to complete the killing.
As before, he completed the murder very smoothly. But there was one thing he didn't expect this time, that the couple liked to open the curtains and have sex under the curious gazes of the residents on the opposite floor. Mr Brooks was photographed by Smith, who has always been a peek at the couple, as he drew the curtains after the attack. Smith is an engineer with a hobby of photography. The next day, when the newspapers covered another homicide committed by the thumb killer, he realized he had inadvertently taken a photo of the killer. Oddly, Smith didn't want to give the photo to the police, but went straight to Mr. Brooks. Mr. Brooks was named businessman of the year when his photo was released.
Thus, the film unfolds two parallel lines. One is that Tracy, a police detective who was chasing the thumb killer, was extorted by her cheating husband for a huge amount of property while solving the case, before agreeing to divorce. Because her father is a billionaire, her own net worth is tens of millions. In addition, the killer Meeks that Tracy had captured escaped from prison and is trying to kill Tracy to take revenge. Another is that Smith offered Brooks to watch him kill or report Brooks to the police.
Just as Smith went to Mr. Brooks's company to find him, his daughter Jane came to his company at the same time. Jane told her father that she didn't want to go to college anymore, but wanted to come back and inherit his family business. Brooks suspects that his daughter has other secrets, but because of Smith's surprise visit, Jane has to let Jane go home first. In the meeting with Smith, Brooks did not panic, but prevailed from the beginning. He learned about Smith's IQ and means, as well as his various weaknesses, from Smith's communication. Although Smith has enough evidence in his hand to get him to the gallows, Brooks is ready to play the latter on the palm of his hand. He also sneaked into Smith's apartment that night, copying his house keys and the keys to the bank safe. He knew that Smith would store negatives of photographs and other items in the safe.
The reason why Smith didn't report Brooks to the police was because he had never had the pleasure of seeing the latter kill, so he wanted to be involved. When Tracy came to his apartment building and asked him if he had seen a homicide in the house opposite, he also tried to hide it. Because he was making an appointment to meet Brooks. His demeanor made the seasoned Tracy suspicious of him.
Tracy herself is being molested by her husband, who wants her to pay $5 million for a divorce. In addition, during her mission, she was kidnapped by Meeks and his girlfriend who had been following her. Fortunately, she was able to break free from their clutches thanks to her desperate resistance. Mr Brooks stumbled across Meeks' car while taking Smith to track the new victim in his old Volvo.
Mr. Brooks found information about Tracy by hacking into the police department's official website. He admired Tracy very much and had a feeling of pity for her. When he sees Meeks and his girlfriend, he decides to help Tracy, who has been chasing after him.
Brooks told Smith that he had changed his plans to kill another person the following night. Smith was very dissatisfied and felt that Brooks was playing with him. After Brooks came home, the detective from the location of his daughter's university came to the house, because the police suspected Jane in a local murder. Mr Brooks had been worried that his homicide addiction would be passed on to Jane, and now it appears his nightmare has become a reality. In order to help Jane get rid of the police's tracking, he changed his face and went to that university, imitating Jane's killing methods and committing crimes again, making the police think that it was the work of a serial killer.
On the day Brooks went out to commit the crime, he had made an appointment with Smith to kill together. But he was sure he could handle the latter. He had already left a newspaper of the day in Smith's car, and circled useful words with a red pen, to the effect that he had to go out for a day, and he would meet him at the old hour the next night, and asked Smith not to be stupid. Tracy happened to be waiting for him in the parking lot when Smith came to pick up his car from get off work and read the newspaper. Tracy told Smith bluntly: She suspected Smith knew the inside story, but was reluctant to tell the police. Smith almost said it all under her pressure, but in the end he calmed down.
Brooks met Smith at the appointed time when he got home and took him to Tracy's husband's house. It turned out that the last time he met Meeks, he had already thought about killing him and his lawyer girlfriend in order to clear a thorn in the side for Tracy. Smith was so excited and nervous that he even urinated at the scene by holding his urine for too long, leaving traces of his DNA. Mr. Brooks carried out his well-planned murder as calmly as ever.
While they were committing the crime, Tracy, who was resting at home, received a call from Smith's neighbor, saying he recalled that the couple's window was open on the day of the murder. Tracy realizes that the clue is too important and leads her to find a breakthrough against Smith. She immediately went to Smith's house, only to find that he had just moved, leaving only an envelope with the address of a hotel on it. She thought it was the address of Smith's new home and was about to go there immediately when her partner also found it and told her that her husband had just been killed by a thumb killer. The police chief asked Tracy to return to the police station immediately for investigation, because she had said in front of everyone in the mediation hosted by the court that she hoped her husband would be killed by a car. Unwilling to give up the precious clue she had just received, Tracy insisted on going to that hotel first. But when she got there, she unexpectedly met Meeks and his girlfriend. It turned out that this was carefully arranged by Brooks in order to send Meeks to Tracy. After an intense shootout, Tracy wounded Meeks and his girlfriend, who shot and killed his girlfriend before committing suicide.
Brooks and Smith were driving away from the scene and told Smith that he knew Smith wanted to kill him. And he himself had long been desperate for his homicide addiction, and hoped to take his own life with Smith's hands, and he had long written a message to his wife and daughter. He even figured out how Smith should kill him and get away with it. Smith agreed. He then took Smith to a cemetery he had invested in and found a grave that had already been dug. He wanted Smith to shoot him and then throw the body in the grave and cover it with dirt. When the coffins are put in the next day, Mr. Brooks can disappear from the world unnoticed. Smith shot him, but no bullets were fired. At this time, Brooks showed his hideous face and said that because his daughter Jane was pregnant, he did not want to die. He had gone to Smith's house long ago to fiddle with his pistol. Then he swung a shovel stuck by the tomb and killed Smith.
After he successfully got rid of Smith, the police identified Smith as the thumb killer based on the DNA Smith left at the scene and wanted him. Mr. Brooks didn't care about it, he just wondered why Tracy had to be a policeman with such a rich father. He stole a cell phone to call Tracy and told Tracy that her husband's death was not an accident. Tracy realizes this is the real thumb killer. She told Mr. Brooks that the reason was because her father wanted a boy and was very disappointed in her, so she tried to succeed in a high-IQ career to prove her excellence. Through this call, Tracy realizes that the thumb killer is not Smith, because she can tell that it is someone else who is calling her.
The film ends with Mr Brooks dreaming that his daughter Jane killed him.
The narrative of the entire film is clear, the plot is smooth and natural, and it is not sloppy at all. The story of how a serial killer trying to turn his back on his life, being discovered by Smith and killing his daughter Jane, dealt with two of the biggest crises in his life, is extremely compelling in one go. The second point of the film is Mr. Brooks' split personality: Earl and Marshall. Earl kept yelling that he couldn't kill anymore, and kept praying to God to get him right. And Marshall has been asking for fun, to enjoy life. This kind of processing makes it unnecessary for the director to use voice-over and other means to express the complex psychological activities of Mr. Brooks. Because it can all be shown through the dialogue and interaction between his two personalities, Earl and Marshall. They are like a pair of inseparable twin brothers, admiring and ridiculing each other, bickering all the time, but working closely and cooperating closely at critical moments, with division of labor.
Precisely because this is just a movie, and completely impossible to happen in reality, we don't have to struggle with legal and moral conflicts. Many details of the film are completely unbearable, and Mr. Brooks also seems like an omnipotent high-IQ superman, but this does not prevent the director from telling a very old-fashioned theme and story from a new angle. and performance. This movie is an interesting choice for those who have fun after work.
Earl and Marshall's actors - Kevin Costner and William Hurt's cooperation is also a perfect match, contributing a lot to the success of the film. Their performances are all tepid and natural, successfully portraying the complex character of Mr. Brooks in the mask of a successful man. The frequent bickering between the two is like the daily sparring of a loving couple, and more of a mutual appreciation and warmth. Compared with them, Mr. Smith is a rookie who deserves to be used and calculated by the wily Mr. Brooks. And Demi Moore played Tracy, acting is dull and much inferior.
Earl, like Mr. Brooks' superego, always wants to turn things right, while Marshall, like his id, emphasizes self-liberation and enjoyment. Together they make the perfect Mr. Brooks. Perhaps, each of us has more or less the shadow of Mr. Brooks. In the face of reason and morality, we can't always overcome our own nature and instinct.
In The Human Zoo, Desmond Morris compares today's humans with our ancestors and apes. He believes that modern human beings have long lost the opportunity and excitement of hunting due to urban life, and do not need to work hard, so life is very boring, and they need to find a way to spend time for themselves through literature and film and television works. From this point of view, "Mr. Brooks" achieves this purpose perfectly, allowing the audience to have a good time. That's why it surpasses the average popcorn movie and stands out among its kind.
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