Patrick Lising
A serial killer by the name of Zodiac taunts California with coded letters of his morbid murders, daring anyone to stop him.
“Zodiac” is the story of the Zodiac killer and the men who tried to put an end to him, condensed into an R-rated 158 minute movie.
It starts off with a bang to it. A murder of two young adults sets the movie into motion and stirs it into immediate action as to find out who Zodiac really is.
Journalists and police alike find themselves immersed with wanting to find the killer and break his taunting codes that dare to reveal more and more of himself.
The movie loses some its zing, however, from the murders to the beginning of the investigation of the case.
But it effectively becomes a thrilling and entertaining fact-finding mission to solve the Zodiac mystery killer.
It always seems that the police and investigative journalists are getting closer and closer when they themselves also seemed to be getting lost in the midst of looking for the evidence.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr. play Robert Graysmith and Paul Avery, San Francisco Chronicle reporters who are investigating the case.
Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards play the main investigators of the case, Dave Toschi and William Armstrong.
It is through these four characters that slowly, piece by piece, attempt to unravel all the clues to the puzzle that is Zodiac.
All bring great performances to the big screen and do their parts to perfection to get the most out of their characters.
“It was a well-acted movie, great directing with very good performances,” said moviegoer, Scott Kent.
“It was very well done,” he continued. “The only flaw is that there was an abrupt ending, but the telling of the story was great.”
Another moviegoer, Brian Borst, said, “It was good, it kept your attention, kept you thinking, though at the end it was pointless.” “What I liked best was the acting and the fact searching.”
Both found the movie intriguing enough to recommend it to others.
The movie was rather enjoyable, though it lacked a main character; it was solved in the shuffle of the fact-finding multiple investigators.
It started very well with one of the murders but lost a bit of its zest moving into the fact finding, though director David Fincher found ways to still give occasional frights and tense heart-stopping moments.
It’s a great insight to a case that is still seemingly unsolved and has remained so for 39 years.
Overall Rating: A-
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