Mr. Brooks

T and I went on a little date Saturday night to see Mr. Brooks. It was surprisingly quite good, a bit gory, very intriguing. In short, the movie is about addiction. They happen to choose an addiction that is not your "run of the mill" issue - murder - and really developed that theme to an extreme. You could substitute almost any addiction in it's place, of course many addictions are not quite as gruesome, but still as destructive to the very fabric of family, friends, and life.

A couple interesting ideas were presented in the movie. First, the person closest to Mr. Brooks never even suspected he had an addiction. That was a little scary. Second, that the addiction was totally hereditary, although nothing was ever mentioned about Mr. Brooks' parents. That might have added an even stronger element, but was not necessary. Finally, the idea that addiction is cyclical in nature, experimental initially but leading to perfection in deception. The pattern of wanting to stop, being provoked to begin and actually acting upon an addiction was well developed as well.

So, what am I addicted to? I don't really want to admit all my addictions (I mean, most of you believe I am somewhat normal, right? Wouldn't want to upset anyone! LOL), but email is pretty high up there. I don't really hide it that well and it's doubtful I've perfected it, but it interrupts my life and I've looked for ways to curb it and my online time. While I'm glad I don't struggle with an addiction like murder, I can somewhat understand the pull towards things we know are detrimental to our well-being. (Have I mentioned chocolate yet?)

If I had to rate this movie, I'd give it a four and a half out of five stars. It had all the essential elements it needed, good acting, good movement - just a little too gruesome for some of us, but I guess that comes with the territory. I wanted to know a little more about his daughter, but again, that was probably not necessary. I just wanted to know!