Review of Zodiac (2007) by Dylan M — 04 Aug 2015

David Fincher's Zodiac is an interesting film to say the least. The film is very character and dialogue driven, and at times, really engrossing, especially through Jake Gyllenhaal's performance as a cartoonist turned obsessive lunatic trying to figure out who the killer is and Mark Ruffalo as the leading detective on the case (Robert Downey Jr.

wasn't bad either). However, the movie tends to drag on at times due to the extensive runtime and gets convoluted fairly quickly. And that's not to blame on Fincher's direction, quite the opposite actually, Fincher's direction is spot-on and meticulously shot like every other film he's done.

The film's real problem is simply the story itself. Not much of the real life story was altered for its transition to this film, preventing the film from being more entertaining or easier to understand for a movie-going audience.

The film serves more as a factual account of the events themselves than an actual film. Now I respect Fincher being as faithful as possible to the source material, but not when it's sacrificing intrigue.

All and all, Zodiac is a solid thriller but pales in comparison to some of the many great films from the rest of Fincher's filmography.