Movie Is Just Creepy Enough

Rating: 7/10 (13 January 2009)

An often overlooked movie from the 2007 season is Zodiac. Directed by David Fincher, he directed Se7en, right off the bat we know that we are gonna have the creeps. Fincher had to be careful with this subject matter. He didn't have to finesse the treatment of violence or ratings board but rather the fact that there are so many Zodiac experts and fanatics. There are tons of books and loads of information in the marketplace about the real life 1970s killer in San Francisco. The movie examines a series of murders that started in July 1969 and letters to local newspapers in San Francisco that followed. The letter writer included a separate cryptic cipher to each of the three newspapers and told them to print the letters or he would go on a killing spree. Director David Fincher also focuses on the lives of San Francisco Chronicle crime columnist Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.), political cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), and police inspectors David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and Bill Armstrong (Anthony Edwards). Based on the book by Robert Graysmith himself, the film focuses primarily on Graysmith, but also involves the others who became too involved for their own good: Avery, Toschi, and even Graysmith himself. I liked Zodiac a lot but I understand why it did not make too many best of the year lists. The film is a little tedious and runs long. Now if you're a Zodiac nut the film may not be long enough and if you're just a peripheral nut, like me, then it's just right.  As for the poster, there are two good versions of maybe the 4 offered. The one with the taxi and the one with the fog covered Golden Gate Bridge are both creepy enough to capture just the right feeling for the film.