Interesting

Rating: 7/10 (4 October 2008)

I don't know much about the case of Zodiac outside of this film, so I can't really comment on how close to the truth the story of this film is, or how well each person played their part in comparison to their real-life counterpart. However, I can comment on this film for what it is - a fascinating story of a cartoonist's search for the identity of a serial killer who all else seem to have given up on ever finding.
The pacing of the film is slow, but if I'm honest, that's the type of pacing that I prefer, where the director lets things build up rather than adopting the 'thrill-a-second' approach that certain directors have taken with their films lately. The acting was good - I'm usually a big fan of Jake Gyllenhaal but I wasn't really blown away by his performance in this film - it was OK, he played his part, but I didn't really connect with the character at any point. I was impressed by Robert Downey Jr, who plays a believable Paul Avery, but my favourite performance of the film by far was by Mark Ruffalo as David Toschi - he really made the character his own.
The plot is interesting, but of course limited due to being based on real life case. I've heard people complain that the ending is unsatisfactory as we never 'really' find out who the Zodiac killer is - only who he 'probably' is, but I'm pleased the film chose to stay true to the facts rather than adopt a more Hollywood 'all loose strings tied' approach. I can't really pick any faults with this film, the acting is great, the script is faultless, the direction brilliant, but I've still given it four stars instead of five because, although there's nothing really wrong with it, it's still missing a certain something that makes it extra special. Some films have it, some don't, and sadly this film falls into the latter category. But that's not to say this is a bad film at all - in fact, it is a very good one - just not the greatest.