Movie Review

ZODIAC starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr.

As many of you know, David Fincher is one of my favorite directors. Se7en was bloody good, Fight Club was nearly as brilliant as the book, The Game was full of twists and turns, and Panic Room was a ton of fun (who the fuck is Raul). My anticipation level was pretty high on this one for me because it has just been too long since he made a movie.

When I watch a movie I am always aware of three things. The first is the acting. A movie is only as good as its cast. Bad acting will take away from the entire plot of the film. But acting can only be great with great directing. And therefore the second thing I look for in a movie is the directing skills. But a director, in my opinion, can only make a great movie with a great script. Some might disagree, but I think the key to all perfect movies is the script.

That being said, let's begin with the actors and acting. All were in top form here. Mark Ruffalo (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, You Can Count On Me) is always great in everything that he does. This is no different. He plays an inspector tasked with finding the Zodiac killer. Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain) was sufficient as the main character, Robert Graysmith. Him playing a father was a bit hard to buy since he has always played younger characters. But his charm was used to the max when dealing with his kids or working around a zany, masterful Robert Downey Jr.

Downey Jr. played Paul Avery, a writer for the San Francisco, is the lead crime reporter on the Zodiac case. Avery is on a bit of a downward spiral in the movie kind of hitting close to home for the actor.

So, acting aside, let's look at the directing. Honestly, nothing special here to report. There weren't a whole lot of special effects, there were limited unique camera angles or points of view, and everything played very straight. Where Fincher does shine here is in bringing the late 60's and the early 70's era to life without it being a distraction. Several similar movies of late, Hollywoodland and The Black Dhalia, to name names, were very annoying to watch because of how hard the directors were trying to get you to notice their sets and costumes. Zodiac passes with flying clors where those movies failed.

That just leaves the script. The movie is based on several books written by Robert Graysmith. I didn't much care for his first book. It was very dry and read almost like a newspaper reporter's notes. Luckily, the movie's dialogue is pretty quick and it doesn't spend a lot of time catching you up. Once a character is mentioned or shown on screen you had better rememeber his or her name or you will find yourself lost.

Zodiac is a bit long, however they could have made a six hour movie and still not covered everything that should be noted about this serial killer. The length didn't bother me, but I heard several other moviegoers comment on it as we were leaving.

The movie covers nearly 25 years of history. When any amount of time passes in the film it is noted at the bottom of the screen. By the 4th or 5th flash of elapsed time I had already lost track of when we were in the story. Ultimately that became annoying and I just stopped paying attention unless the passed time was longer than a year.

What was surprising to me about Zodiac was the lack of a creep factor. I only tensed up in one scene and even that wasn't super chilling. The movie really does play out more like a video history than like that of an old fashioned detective story. It's dry in some places, but not once does the information stop coming. You are always learning something new.

The first half is especially bad about touching on a point with no elaboration. It isn't until the last quarter of the film that movie really hits its stride. That's when Graysmith, all the county sheriffs, and the inspectors all begin to close in on a few prime suspects.

Zodiac manages to be entertaining and informative. It manages to be a document of brutality. It manages to showcase police limitations and a lack of resources. It manages to show how easily someone can get away with murder.

If you've ever found yourself at home on some night watching Forensic Files or some other Court TV special or if you are extremely fond of 48 Hours Mystery then this is 2 hours and 40 minutes made just for you.

GRADE: B-