'Zodiac' - Famous serial killer case lasting as long as the real case.
By: Tim - aurora - Dunn

Zodiac is the real life story set in the San Francisco Bay area in the late 60's and early ‘70s and centers on the infamous unsolved case surrounding a rash of serial killings. The murders are attributed to a man who dubbed himself as the Zodiac. The Zodiac sent in cryptic messages to various different news agencies as well as to the police where in he took credit for a series of brutal murders. All of the messages and ciphers grabbed the obsessive attention of the police, media and in particular San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith(played by Jake Gyllenhaal).

The movie starts of extremely strong and grabs you fairly fast as the first string of murders takes place. The Zodiac makes contact with the media where in he insists that they print the messages which he sends them or else he'll kill more people. The hunt for the Zodiac was spearheaded by police inspector's David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and William Armstrong(Anthony Edwards). On the media side we primarily follow the story through the Chronicle reporter Paul Avery(Robert Downey Jr.) and thanks to the symbolic nature of the Zodiac's messages it leads to Graysmiths involvement, who had always been entranced by symbols and puzzles. A huge part of the movie revolves around the interaction of the Chronicles work and the personal hunt by Graysmith to find the Zodiac. This interaction between the Chronicle, Graysmith and the Zodiac inside the newsroom environment is one of the best parts of the movie as it makes you feel involved and keeps you guessing at the Zodiac's identity. Having personally worked as an EMT working on both ambulances and emergency rooms I deeply appreciated the gallows humor which was shared in the newsroom. It is a kind of defense and even defusing mechanism that is commonly found in such horrific circumstances, without it you fall over a dark edge leading to insanity.

However insanity comes in many flavors and for Graysmith it was his obsession of decrypting both the messages as well as the identity of the Zodiac himself. The personal hunt for Graysmith, as well as a few others, becomes all consuming and forcing out the rest of the world. As the killings begin to subside so does the official investigation by the police and the media soon follows suite. This leaves Graysmith pretty much alone in his continued hunt. To this day the identity of the Zodiac killer is still not known. The main suspect, a child molester (played by Carroll Lynch) actually died back in '92.

It's that lack of resolve to the killings that also tends to kill the movie as this is one long movie. Long as in two hours and forty minutes long. About thirty minutes longer then enjoyable. The first hour and a half keeps you happily involved but as things start slowing down in the case so does the movie. In the end you truly begin to relate to Graysmith who was so caught up into the hunt that his world dissolved around him leaving him with many unanswered questions and bereft of a life outside the chase.

The movie is directed by David Fincher who' is best known for movies such as 'Seven', 'Panic Room' and most notably 'FightClub'. Finch loves to add lots of details in to his movies filling them with a richness that keeps you enraptured through out the entire movie. This time around however its trying to fit in all the details that does the movie under. This is seen best towards the end as the police and Chronicle reporters slowly loose interest in finding the Zodiac leaving us alone with Graysmith and his eventual descent to unresolved endings. Finch's vision of the movie is extremely reminiscent of 'All the President's Men' with Robert Redfords magnificent roll as a reporter trying to crack the mystery of WaterGate. There are some remarkable performances in this movie by both Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards and even Robert Downing Jr. But we loose it when comparing the award winning performance of Redford to that of Gyllenhaal. While Gyllenhaal did spend time with the real Robert Graysmith and plays his part as written for him it still lacks that massive power you would have hoped to pull this movie all the way to the ending credits. While the story of Graysmith is what keeps the movie rolling and propels you through the movie the lack of interest and resolve in the end is all to evident in my lack of interest and caring for a resolve in the end.

Another down fall with the movie is the leaps through time. This case dragged on for years and in the movie we are dragged through this timeline almost haphazardly. One minute your here a few minutes later its a few days later, a few minutes after that its weeks down the line. Towards the end we jump years. While it is basically Graysmith that keeps us rooted in knowing where and when we are it still a dizzying ride trying to follow the case in the detail that Finch wants us to understand.

Conclusion:
Zodiac is a movie that starts out strong and has you as excited as all the talk leading up to the movie makes you want to expect. Its a complex case that happened in a time shared with other bizarre and horrific events such as Charlie Manson, WaterGate and the mega police/media heyday events. However unlike stories of Charlie Manson and WaterGate there is no resolve nor conclusion to the story. In the end you are left both dry and drained.

Ratings:

IMDB Film Ratting - unrated at time of writing.

- For a movie going experience I give it: 2.5 out of 5 stars.
The first part of the movie was extremely enjoyable and hinted at greatness but as the case wanes so did my interest.

- For a technical piece of CG and VFX work I give it: 2.5 out of 5 stars.
Well lets just admit it there's not much in the way of all out CG/VFX in this film. However its the hidden CG work and post work that goes unheralded in movies like this. Having said that the biggest flaw in the VFX is the lack of color/lighting continuity that distracted in the movie.

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