Purely Fincheristic

Rating: 7/10 (13 December 2011)

An intense, albeit slow, telling of the story of the Zodiac killings, this movie transports its audience back to the 60's and 70's, and makes them relive the tension and paranoia that shrouded the lives of the public back then. The Zodiac Killer was active during those days, a serial killer who would leave codes and mail ciphers and letters to the newspapers, gloating over his kills. It follows the story of the young cartoonist Robert Graysmith, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, for whom hunting down the Zodiac became a morbid obsession and remained so long after the case had gone cold and the police had stopped hunting him down. It also follows the lives of Inspector Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and Paul Avery, the first journalist to take an active interest in the Zodiac killings (Robert Downey Jr.). The film-makers have shown as accurate a picture as possible on celluloid, basing their stories on the book by the real-life Graysmith. This is a must-watch for all those who love the crime- thriller genre. It has an ending that leaves the audience wanting to believe something, but not being sure.