Serial killer has inner and outer demons in 'Mr. Brooks'

In the dark thriller, "Mr. Brooks," Kevin Costner plays a wealthy and happily married Portland businessman who has long had a double life as a serial killer. Every so often, he goes out into the night, picks some victim at random and gets a huge sexual charge out of murdering him or her.

He's not at all happy with this aberration and he's been going to AA for the past two years trying to get his addiction under control. But, as the film opens, the honor of being named Portland's Man of the Year somehow weakens his resolve and he falls off the wagon.

Vowing it will be the last time, he breaks into a house and murders a young couple in the midst of making love, and earns a tremendous orgasm from the act. The next day, though, he learns he was caught on film at the bloody crime scene by a man who lives across the street.

Fortunately, it turns out that this witness, Mr. Smith (Dane Cook), is himself an aspiring serial killer. So instead of going to the cops, he blackmails Mr. Brooks into teaching him the fine art of stalking and killing anonymous strangers.

And the movie becomes a complicated cat-and-mouse game between these two antagonists: Mr. Smith, the eager young apprentice who aspires to be a world-class murderer, and Mr. Brooks, the old master who wants to once and for all kick the habit of slaughter.

	Kevin Costner, right, is urged by alter ego William Hurt to follow his baser instincts in the suspense thriller "Mr. Brooks."

Meanwhile, Mr. Brooks also has to contend with a determined cop on his trail (Demi Moore), a college-age daughter (Danielle Panabaker) with bad habits of her own and his alter ego (William Hurt), who follows him through the movie, urging him to more thrill kills.

Yes, this is a strange story -- and one that seems to exist to make the case that a serial killer is really no different from you and me except for the fact that his sexual orientation just happens to be different and, in our present culture, socially unacceptable.

If you're in sympathy with that message, you may enjoy this complex, psychologically daring and visually stylish noir, which has been put together by director Bruce Evans ("Kuffs") with few dull moments and virtually none of the black humor you might expect from the premise.

In the lead, Costner (who financed the production out of his own pocket) is a long way from the boyish charmer of "Dances With Wolves." But his easygoing star power is intact, and he engenders an odd compassion that almost, but not quite, makes this outlandish movie work.