Cinema doing what it does best

Rating: 10/10 (18 March 2007)

Cinema is at its strongest when it transports you to another time and place. Watching Zodiac, I felt like I was in San Francisco in the 1960s/70s/80s/90s. I felt the excitement of a city gripped in terror at a faceless yet enigmatic killer and I felt like I was in the clutches of the obsession that devoured 4 men.
A lot of criticism of this film has been leveled at the fact that it is a 2 1/2 hour film without resolution. For a start, I could have sat through 6 hours of police work on this case and not be bored. And relating to that, that the case is never solved (which, admittedly, I was worried about when I first heard about it), is the most perfect and ONLY way this film could and should be ended. It is not like Deadwood Season 3 ***POSSIBLE 'DEADWOOD' SPOILERS*** where I screamed at the TV for not betraying history and having Swearingen BEAT THE LIVING HELL FROM HEARST, if history was changed in this case it would have weakened the movie, as at its heart it is a tale of obsession and having the case unresolved serves only to underline this theme.
Another concern some people seem to have with this film is that Zodiac is, as a serial killer, an "underachiever", having only 5 confirmed kills. The film only shows 3 of these murders and while for some, murders may equate to quality (Zodiac being therefore 3/7 of the film that Se7en is) the point is that Zodiac, as a villain who effectively uses the media to publicize himself, is a different kind of serial killer, a master of self-promotion and a bigger scalp for those who hunt him. The lack of murders in no way hurts the film - if anything it makes the killer a more thrilling quarry.
The film is perfectly-paced and immaculately production-designed and for anyone wanting an absorbing chase (in the plodding, police-work sense) and a world you never have need to doubt is exactly the time and place it professes to be, Zodiac is the film for you.