"This is the Zodiac speaking."

Rating: 8/10 (24 December 2012)

Even living completely across the country in New York during the late Sixties/early Seventies, the Zodiac killer's crimes were front page headline stuff for a time. Quite honestly, I couldn't remember if the Zodiac was ever found, convicted, and sentenced for his murders. This film is a well paced if overlong study of the investigation into that string of murders, as well as one man's obsession with discovering the Zodiac's identity. The investigation turns up increasingly positive clues as well as frustrating dead ends on the part of police detectives working on the case, and if anything, one gains a certain appreciation for the kind of persistence and dedication they bring to their work. Because the legwork is so meticulous and exhaustive, it's frustrating to see how certain evidence winds up inadmissible, or how the input of a handwriting expert like Sherwood Morrill (Philip Baker Hall) is considered the final word on the subject to the exclusion of alternate considerations. As the picture progresses, Jake Gyllenhall takes center stage as the principal player obsessed with discovering the identity of the Zodiac, after months and years go by with leads exhausted and intermittent, circumstantial periods of time with no contact from the man claiming to be the killer. The viewers' own ideas about the case will either be hardened or rendered totally inconclusive once the picture is over, just as it was for the principal players in this daunting mystery which at this point will probably never be solved.