Mr. Brooks

Mr. Brooks is a psychological crime thriller about Earl Brooks, a respected businessman and family man living a double life as a serial killer. His compulsion to murder is personified by Marshall, an alter ego who urges him on, and Brooks struggles to keep that side of himself in check. After a killing is witnessed by a photographer, the stranger chooses not to go to the police. Instead he blackmails Brooks, but his demand is unusual: he wants to accompany him on future murders rather than be paid. At the same time, a determined detective investigating the killings begins to close in.

Bruce A. Evans directed and co-wrote the film with Raynold Gideon; it was his second feature as director, arriving fifteen years after Kuffs. Kevin Costner, who also produced, leads the cast as Earl Brooks, with William Hurt as Marshall, Demi Moore as Det. Tracy Atwood, Dane Cook as the blackmailing photographer Mr. Smith, and Marg Helgenberger and Danielle Panabaker as his wife and daughter. The production, shot in the United States and Ireland on a budget of about 20 million dollars, returned roughly 48 million dollars worldwide.

Audience response has been moderately positive. On IMDb the film holds 7.2 out of 10 from about 163,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 6.9 from around 1,900 votes. A critics' rating of 5.9 from 158 reviews places it below the audience scores, indicating that viewers have generally been warmer toward the film than reviewers.