Rating of
3.5/4
Zodiac is a modern day Hitchcock film
Josh C - wrote on 03/17/07
Keeping with Hitchcock's style of building suspense and horror slowly while not showing all the blood and gore worked very well for David Fincher. The result is a movie that keeps you engaged and lets you use your imagination as to how and why the Zodiac kills.
The movie, which is obviously based around a true story, takes place over 20 years though most of the movie's events take place in a span of just seven years. Though the movie covered a huge span of events and very few killings it was surprisingly intense because of good acting on the parts of Gyllenhaal and Downy Jr. Also, the directing was good enough to not loose any of the intensity and build up by jumping from one time to another, sometimes over four years pass in one scene!
The movie followed the lives of a reporter, an investigator, a cartoonist and most importantly the people in San Fransisco. Downy Jr., who is fantastic in his role of a high-strung, somewhat eccentric and very drunk reporter gets most of the attention early on in the film. Eventually this focus gets passed from person to person until Downy's character is no more; showing how much time has passed and the different parties that are no longer involved in the investigation. This is a powerful part of the movie. Many films miss out on this effect because they to keep their "stars" involved throughout the movie creating a somewhat predictable ending that seems forced.
It is refreshing to see this type of movie with good honest performances and no cheap thrills.
