Pleasantly Surprised

Rating: 8/10 (4 March 2007)

Zodiac is as much a horror film as Barney's Great Adventure is a documentary. Most of the footage in the ads takes place in the first half-hour of the movie, and is occasionally touched upon later throughout. Now, all that said, those few murder scenes are not afraid to show the violence, so it's still not something for children to watch.
The rest of the movie focuses on cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), his colleague Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.), and several detective agencies as they attempt to track down the infamous Zodiac killer.
The movie takes place across a span of about 20 or so years, jumping forward as new evidence emerges. It's based quite faithfully on the real Zodiac killings and the investigations that followed. The film is actually based on the book written by the real Robert Graysmith.
The acting throughout the film is very impressive, especially on the part of Gyllenhaal, who manages to convincingly depict Graysmith's plunge from a simple cartoonist, to an obsessive man who begins to neglect his own family in his desperate search for the identity of the Zodiac. Gyllenhaal wasn't the greatest actor in the film however, my personal favorite was that of Robert Downey Jr., who plays Paul Avery. Avery is the polar opposite of Graysmith, instead of plunging deeper and deeper into the Zodiac case, he simply drinks himself into oblivion. Downey Jr. is very animated throughout his performance, and is very reminiscent of his role as Jim Barris in 2006's A Scanner Darkly. One of my only complaints about the movie is that Downey's character is criminally underused. His talents as an actor far surpass the screen time he receives in this movie.
One complaint many people seem to have with Zodiac is that it's too long. Clocking in at about 2 and a half hours, it's no slouch in the length department. It's a very compelling 2 and a half hours though, and I had no problem sitting there and watching this case unfold. I encourage those who see it to do so without any prior research on the Zodiac. The less you know about what really happened, the more you'll enjoy this movie. That's not to say it's inaccurate, but I walked in knowing several things about the Zodiac's murders, and felt it detracted a little from the overall experience. Nothing to write home about of course, but there's nonetheless more enjoyment to be had when you don't know how the story will play out.
I was particularly interested in seeing how the movie would end. It's no secret that the Zodiac case was never officially solved. They did a very good job with it though, they leave with satisfying closure without giving any definitive answers. One could make a very compelling argument that the final scene is one of the best in the film. Graysmith walks up to the man he believes is the Zodiac. The man looks at Graysmith, smiles, and says "Can I help you?". Graysmith simply replies "No...No it's alright...", but continues to stare at him. The man's smile fades, suggesting that he might know what's going on, but again no answers are given. The camera moves to Graysmith once again, watches him for a moment, and the movie closes.
Overall, Zodiac was a very pleasant surprise, and I would encourage anyone remotely interested in a well-crafted Crime Drama to take a look. Ignore the ads, ignore the media hype. Zodiac is a much better film than it's given credit for.