Zodiac movie review

Rating: 10/10 (30 December 2010)

Its both provoking in the mystery that has truly plagued America for over 40 years, driving the many brave men who sought to uncover it either to quitting, drinking, or even just enough madness to call it quits. Director David Fincher travels back in time to show audiences the very case of the Zodiac killer. The Zodiac killer ran on a mind wrenching killing spree, sending letters to various Newspapers, including the San Francisco chronicle, Vallejo Times Herald, and the San Francisco Examiner. Each of these letters would be mailed in a enveloped form containing both a letter to the editor to the editor, as well as a cipher encrypted in various forms of codes as messages to further explain his nature as the Zodiac Killer, his intentions, and even his own state of mind. He would kill people on and on, starting with various groups of young lovers, preying on them in the most predatorial of circum stances, leaving patterns of murder at first, thus later shattering them to throw off investigations. The first message, deciphered by the editors, including the chronicles very own Paul Avery (Downey Jr.), intrigued me mainly out of its hidden message, showing the Zodiac's possible motivation for murder. A not very well respected, but kind hearted cartoonist at the Chronicle, Robert Graysmith (Gyllenhaal) deciphers unsolved parts of the code leading him to the film "The Most Dangerous Game" which serves as the basis for Zodiacs love to kill man because he considers him to be the most dangerous animal there is to hunt. His general motivation of sport hunting humans as targets serves as enough of a clue of just how crazy he is, but in the very few calls he made with his on voice, he sounded both calm and premeditated in his react ional responses to the moments he had performed the murders, inciting every speculative detail of both the victims, the murder weapons, and the location of the event. The lead cast was very impressive in their performances, Gyllenhall as Graysmith, Downey as Avery, and Ruffalo as Detective Toschi. Each of them brought something unique to their characters, as well as their own contribution to solving the mystery of the Zodiac. As the young boy scout of a cartoonist, Gylleenhaal portrays his character with an unbelievable sense of innocence and determination, that viewers will be surprised at his very drive to find the murderer. Downey brings his usual quirky sense of humor to the drug abusing Paul Avery, using his tone of cynicism to make this tortured soul into an at least amusing character to the investigation. Mark Ruffalo himself as the detective who had the very first absolute clue of the who Zodiac was, plays his role with the very same determination as Graysmith, following more and more leads, using every detail possible to pin the possible evidence to their primary suspect, Arthur Leigh Allen, the man with the highest probability of being the Zodiac. The factors mainly essential to the accusation of Allen as the killer, were the very fact that he could not only write with both hands, but furthermore his own handwriting itself proved to be a perfect match to the mailed Zodiac letters. It was unfortunate that these factors alone did not prove enough to charge him. The only true lead came with his identification in 1991, by Matthew Mague, the Zodiac's first surviving victim. In an the films conclusion we viewers are shown brief but clear messages about the polices stance on the investigation, only to be disappointed at the fact that Allen lucked out through his own demise of a heart attack, before charges could be made. Despite that little inconvenience, the film was excellent, using both very specific details on every factor that revolved around the Zodiac investigation, such as his murders, his messages, the dates of these simultaneous occurrences, and further more the very concluding piece of valid evidence for conviction. The direction of the film and how it just goes at a hourly, weekly, monthly, and yearly forward change of pace, while still having it lead characters all use the significance of their supporting roles to further contribute to another fast forwarded stage of the investigation. The respected Director of "Seven" and "The Game" has shown viewers his talent as a director capable of exploiting such pure thrill and charismata in both the matter of the film's subject, and even the characters. The film "Zodiac", itself leaves it audiences with a sense of curiosity, out of the main fact that the case has been reopen for a few years, since the Zodiac killers murders have left some traces of reoccurrence. Sure anyone can assume that Allen wasn't the Zodiac, or could it mean that his work started a legacy of murder for others to follow. We'll probably never know.