The Perfect Execution of a Challenging Subject

Rating: 8/10 (31 October 2018)

I'll tell you a quick story about my viewing of this film. The DVD for Zodiac had been sitting on my TV for about 2 weeks. The day before I saw it, I went to the library and browsed through the true crime section. I noticed a very small book about the Zodiac killer, filled with photos and large print. Since I was about to see the movie, I decided to read this book, which took about an hour. What I thought is that it would be very difficult to adapt into an engaging movie. There were a lot of interesting elements, but not what you would call riveting, and certainly not Hollywood.
The movie stayed true to this small book in terms of subject matter (there is a full novel about Zodiac, which the movie is based on). Events played out somewhat how I imaged, except that it worked so darn well. The story of the Zodiac killer is probably the seed for a lot of the sensationalized serial killer movies over the years, including Se7en which David Fincher also directed. Fincher could have sensationalized this story if he wanted, but he trusted the material and gave an honest account of the real events that took place. There was nothing too fancy about the execution of this piece - it was just filled with all the right moves. To me, that's one of Fincher's trademarks as a director.
If you haven't seen it, I won't ruin it. I'll just say that this film doesn't deliver what you expect from a serial killer movie, but that turned out to be one of its strengths. Great directing, great acting, great everything. I don't give it 10 out of 10, only because it's not on the same level as THE GODFATHER and other movies that reach the ultimate level. But for what it is, it's absolutely perfect.