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Princess Bride
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by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
B+ Rated R 120 min
Everyone has a dark side. Some people are plagued with evil thoughts. Others fight addictions. Then there are people like Mr. Brooks (Kevin Costner) who have multiple personalities. Mr. Brooks’ evil alter ego is Marshall (William Hurt). Mr. Brooks fights his alter ego like an addiction. He even attends AA meetings and mutters the slogans and prayers. Ah, but he succumbs to his addiction, which is much stronger than his will to resist it. To Brooks, killing is the ultimate rush–far more powerful than drugs, alcohol, or gambling.
In this masterfully written psycho-drama by writer/director, Bruce A. Evans, Brooks is a pillar of the community, having built up a successful corporation making boxes. In fact, he was just voted the local Man of The Year for his community service work. Evan’s script examines in-depth Brooks’ twisted dual personality as he struggles with his addiction.
Marge Helgenberger skillfully portrays Brooks’ wife, Emma, who thinks she’s married to the perfect man. Danielle Panabaker (from Shark) plays his daughter, who drops out of college for reasons that she is keeping from her parents. Yes, it’s one happy and prosperous American family. But dad has a monkey on his back that could destroy his entire empire. Yet he continues practicing his sideline of serial killing to satisfy his craving for blood and death.
Demi Moore deftly portrays homicide detective Tracy Atwood, who has been working Brooks’ string of murders. He is dubbed the “Thumb Print Killer” because he always leaves a victim’s bloody thumb print at the scene of his crime. Atwood is frustrated because the killer is meticulous and leaves no evidence behind. He wraps his gun in plastic to catch the shell casings and he’s careful not to leave any DNA or fibers behind.
As a subtext to the story, Atwood comes from wealth and is worth more than $60 million dollars. She wanted to work as a police officer to make a difference and show her father she was more than a superficial heiress. She is also going through a bitter divorce from a gold-digging Don Juan. Moore portrays the driven, alpha-personality that is warped by anger, Atwood, with emotional insight.
Another tangent to the already complex plot is the emergence of Mr. Smith, played with amazing acting skill by Dane Cook. Smith is an amateur photographer who has shot some incriminating pictures of Brooks committing a murder. He turns up one day at Brooks’ company with copies of the photographs. What he wants is to learn Brooks’ skill at killing by going with Brooks on his hunts. Marshall, Brooks’ alter ego, warns him that this kid is trouble. For the time being, Brooks goes along with Smith to find out what he knows and where he is stashing the copies of the photos and memory cards from his camera. As it turns out, Smith is easy to read–he’s not very smart.
Evans’ best writing is his dialogue between Marshall and Brooks–two distinctly different personalities trapped in one body. Marshall wants to keep on killing, but doesn’t want to get caught. Brooks suggests that he will eventually make a mistake and get caught. The debate between Brooks and Marshall is riveting and gives the viewer insight into Brooks’ multiple personality disorder with homicidal tendencies.
There are many shocking surprises that make the scenario unpredictable and Emma’s problems escalate into a family crisis.
Costner portrays Brooks with cold steely confidence. His characterization of Brooks is chilling and disturbing. He also produced the film and had input into the script along with Evans’ writing partner Reynold Gideon. Like pedophiles, sociopaths like Brooks can’t stop killing. They have been taken over by evil, which dominates their personality. It’s even more disturbing that in real life, there are people like Brooks who hide under their veil of respectability.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
