Overlong and winding road

Rating: 6/10 (19 August 2007)

Not sure what to make of this dog's breakfast of a movie. Part police procedural, part historical recreation, part murder mystery, part serial - killer docudrama, I think it falls between too many stools and loses its way through its way overlong playing time until the downbeat climax(if that's not too oxymoronic) when the Jake Gyllenhaal character gets to look the main Zodiac killer suspect in the eye. Bits of it I liked, the ensemble acting (the cops beat the reporters hands down), the musical soundtrack and the newsroom recreation straight out of "Lou Grant" but I kept looking at my watch in anguish each time Gyllenhall's character reaches yet another dead-end in his obsessive journey to the truth. Strange to criticise the director of "Seven" for a lack of suspense at key points (the murders and the confrontation between Gyllenhaal and Zodiac's creepy former - employer just before the end, just don't engage} but I was never brought to the edge of my seat. Still, I just about survived until the end but feel the movie could have benefited from a bit less meaningless characterisation and more tightly focused editing to deliver a more satisfying movie experience.