Zodiac
With David Fincher (2002's Panic Room, 1995's Se7en, 1992's Alien 3) directing this true story of a serial killer terrorizing San Francisco and parts of California in the early 1970s, I was expecting a nail biting, edge-of-my-seat experience. Unfortunately, my wishes were not fulfilled. The film starts tense enough with the introduction of the killer (always in the shadows) going through the steps of his first kills with music of the times blaring in the background. Especially tense was the knifings of a couple at a lake. The tension is maintained as the first pair of characters from the San Francisco Chronicle (a cartoonist played by Jake Gyllenhaal and a crime reporter played by Robert Downey Jr.) are sucked into the case when the first of many cryptic notes are sent to the news media. The tension is heightened once more by the two detectives (played by Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards) assigned to the case. Where and when will Zodiac strike next? The threat to kill a school bus full of children. The dead-end leads. All worked well—for the first hour. Then the film plateaus as leads dry up and time passes. Now I start looking at my watch. The use of background 1970s music ends; the Anthony Edwards' character asks to leave the case (film) and even the Zodiac killer stops killing. I'm wondering about now if I should leave with them. The only one hanging in there is the Jake Gyllenhaal character who manages to breathe new life into the case and the film when he takes it upon himself to find the Zodiac—in the final act. So for the last 40 minutes or so, the film is back on track with a few tense moments. I went expecting a thriller (this is no Se7en) and got a crime drama that was 30 minutes too long.
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