Zodiac

March 23, 2007

Rated: R Runtime: 158 min Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

David Fincher is one of my favorite directors so I had decent hopes for this movie when I sat down in the auditorium… Unfortunately those hopes were dashed against the rocks about 30 minutes into this snoozer. That being said let’s get to it.

Zodiac Set mainly in 1970’s San Francisco this movie is about the writing of the best selling novel ‘Zodiac’ by cartoonist turned author, Robert Graysmith. Robert (Gyllenhaal) was a cartoonist that worked for the San Francisco Chronicle during the times of the Zodiac’s reign of terror, but when the case stalls out and the cops can’t find the guy he became obsessed and takes it upon himself to do what no one else could, and solve the case himself. Working behind the scenes with famous San Francisco Police Inspector, David Toschi (Ruffalo) and crime reporter for the Chronicle Paul Avery (Downey), Graysmith goes places and interviews witnesses in locations beyond Toschi’s jurisdiction, and since he isn’t a ‘reporter’ like Avery they’re willing to open up more - which ultimately leads to better leads for everyone.

The Zodiac’s killing ground covered a good portion of northern California so there were multiple law enforcement agencies working the case and sharing of information wasn’t as common, which made working together difficult. Since each County/City had citizens killed by the Zodiac, each one of them wanted to catch the Zodiac on their own. Back in the day it was a let them know what they need to know type situation, but don’t let them know all we know, and because of that no one was any closer to catching him. Graysmith having never told anyone he was a reporter, and having sold himself as nothing more than a writer was able to convince the various departments to let him pick through the files of all the agencies, which gave him a full spectrum of the evidence and angles (major spoilers) no one else involved would think to look for.

Long story short Graysmith takes all he discovers and rolls it into a full profile and timeline that leads the police to a very solid suspect Arthur Allen, but due to incompatible hand writing analysis they can’t hold him. In case you know little of the Zodiac, he was famous for sending cryptic letters to various newspapers bragging about his crimes and daring the cops to catch him, so the handwriting was the most crucial part of the police’s investigation. That sums up the basics of the film and had it been about an hour shorter it probably would’ve been a good movie, but as it was nearly 3 full hours it was just to danged long.

The acting from Gyllenhaal is uninspiring and as exciting as a bowl of old wet noodles. Downey on the other hand is excellent and in my opinion the only bright spot in this whole crappy movie. I read the book a long time ago and it was pretty good but as it turns out, a movie filmed at the same pace just doesn’t work. There are plenty of other movies out there that you should spend your cash on so if it was my $10, I’d wait until DVD… at least that way you could break it up over a couple of days which might ease the suffering.

Posted by J.C. Edwards | Filed Under 2 Stars, Anthony Edwards, Chloe Sevigny, Drama, Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, R, Robert Downey Jr, Theatrical