Zodiac thrills and chills with fear of the unknown to save 2007

Rating: 10/10 (23 July 2007)

Zodiac is by far the best film of 2007. It has not been a dismal year for Hollywood with record box office collections all around, but quality wise it has taken a beating. Zodiac, even with good quality movies around, would have beaten them. So good is the direction that the maker almost successfully holds the viewers attention and keeps them at the edge of their seat without any violence and gore and that says a lot about how thrilling is the drama that is taking place on the screen.
Zodiac is about the infamous zodiac killer of San Francisco in the late 60's and 70's. With the case still open in 2007 and no justice done, it would have been less gripping to concentrate on one of the famous suspect of the case. While keeping the killer unknown throughout the movie the director has concentrated his attention on the investigation and especially on the reporters of the daily newspaper 'san Francisco chronicles', to whom the killer used to send abstract letters (to other newspapers also) along with zodiac coded language at the daily's office, with a threat to print those letters in the next daily edition or the entire county would face his wrath with more killings. Only letter handwriting matching and fingerprints to hold the suspects along with many varied eyewitness accounts of there encounter with the zodiac killer, the police investigation was not going along smoothly. As the cult grows the panic and frustration starts gripping the investigators and the reporters who end up loosing everything for finding the killer, coming chillingly close to many suspects and the real one. Jake Gyllenhaal ( Broke back Mountain) as the cartoonist Robert Graysmith at the chronicles who remains involved in the case for almost four decades comes up with an ace performance. Robert Downey Jr. as the chronicles eccentric reporter Paul Avery who in his time while investigating the killer gets letters from the killer personally also comes up with a commendable performance along with Mark Ruffalo ( 13 going on 30 ) as the san Francesco police's chief investigation officer on the case. With dependable actors all around the director with no worries creates a chilling drama around the real facts of the killings and investigation. The film though chillingly real tends to loosen few nerves in the audience with use of good humor of the main characters during few serious sequences in the first half. But in the second half with police coming chillingly close to the 'real' killer and Graysmith's own maddening investigation grips and demands the audience's attention. The director successfully captures Robert Graysmith's fear and emotions while he personally investigates the killings to write a book chronicling the events surrounding the killings, as he becomes victim of the killers nerve-wrecking midnight calls at his home. With the killer remaining unknown throughout the film the audience is gripped by various emotions all along, with no respite after the movie ends.
The movie remains in the audience's mind as the ending credits briefs them about the various progresses the investigation had made. The movie is definitely close to a masterpiece in the crime genre. All thumbs up.