Zodiac
Zodiac is a movie about the as yet “unsolved” case of a serial killer in the San Francisco area in the 1970’s. The film follows the case from its beginning until its dead end. The film is based on real cases files and a book by Robert Graysmith, which delves into the mysteries of the killer in order to provide a largely unsatisfactory answer at the end of the film.
Director David Fincher once again returns to a genre that he helped revolutionize with his influential film Se7en. Fincher’s strengths are all evident in this film, as well as some of his weaknesses. Fincher once again puts together a film full of interesting and beautiful imagery as well as managing to pull outstanding performances from all involved. However, the film also suffers from Fincher’s trademark visual diarrhea complex, a situation where one gets tired of beautiful visuals after the second hour as the film floats along oblivious to its own bloated and oftentimes unnecessary mass. Zodiac is simply too much in too short of a time. The first half of the movie and the second half of the movie could be entirely different films, but Fincher chooses to cram the two together creating a tonal and thematical shift that just doesn’t sit well with the viewer. While the first part of the movie is straight up serial killer/detective fare with much exposition and general police work, the second half of the film switches to an examination of the obsessive compulsion and fascination of a writer trying to solve the case… both are great ideas, but not when crammed together.
The acting in the film is brilliant. Even Jake Gyllenhaal, whom I normally despise, manages to turn in a fantastic performance… even though the film does lose some of its impetus once the focus of the movie switches over to his storyline. The film is filled with an awesome supporting cast including Mark Ruffalo Robert Downey Jr. (Weird Science, Natural Born Killers), and Elias Koteas (Fallen, The Thin Red Line). Even though no one really stands out in the film, except for Downey Jr. who plays an all too realistic drug addict, all of the performances are solid.
Zodiac is a film that wants to be liked. The investigation and the real world circumstances that surround the case are fascinating. It’s too bad that the film starts out just the same, but soon devolves into watching some dude pour over files and conduct interviews… if I wanted to watch someone do research I’d take the mold growing by my toilet to a scientist’s lab and watch them try to figure out what it is. Someone should have sent Fincher back to school so he could have learned how to pare down this bloated ode to the old school library researcher.
Final Synopsis: There’s a lot of hype surrounding this movie… don’t believe it. It’s worth a watch, but this is nothing groundbreaking and it’s not going to change anyone’s life. Still, if you’ve got three hours to sit around on your ass, you can see some fine performances and imagery. It’s worth a rent for most people.
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