A very entertaining story even if not based on real facts.

Rating: 7/10 (15 July 2011)

The movie Zodiac was quite entertaining and the actors used in this movie did an outstanding job, especially Mark Ruffalo playing inspector Tochi. I never got bored during the movie as it moved along nicely and left me thinking about who was the real killer Zodiac.
The problem I have with this movie is that it says it is based on fact and many of the reviewers say they enjoyed the movie because it stuck to the facts. Unfortunately this is not true. I have no problem when a movie, as most do, takes commercial license to glamorize or make interesting a true or actual event. The problem here is that this film actually puts in known and glaring falsities that are the foundation for Graysmith's conclusion that Arthur Leigh Allen was the Zodiac.
Most people who have not read into the facts or do so after the movie will come away with the glaring conclusion that Leigh was the killer based on damning evidence presented during the movie. However most of that evidence is not true. The most glaring falsity of the movie is that the call that was traced to Attorney Melvin Belli house came during January 1970 and that one call that the housekeeper got was traced to a mental hospital and the caller was ruled out. So Graysmith's obsession with the "Dec 18" call "it's my birthday I have to kill" call did not happen on Dec 18 and the call was traced. This glaring fact is completely overlooked in the movie. Now there are many other REAL facts that basically prove Leigh Allen was not the Zodiac killer and there are plenty of websites that offer facts and research from the actual police if one is interested in learning further.
Again I think this movie was very entertaining and one of the better crime movies I have seen, yet for the misguided omission of the true facts. I would recommend this movie but keep an open mind and look a little deeper if you want the true facts and evidence accumulated over the years.