By Ed Koch
“Zodiac” (-)
Although this docudrama is interesting and at times gripping, and the performances are excellent, in its totality it is disappointing.
The movie lays out the more than 20 years of fear that gripped the citizens of California as a result of the murders alleged to have been committed by a serial killer who called himself the “Zodiac.” Several of the brutal murders are reenacted.
Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), a cartoonist at a San Francisco newspaper, is somewhat of a milquetoast character who becomes obsessed with learning the identity of the Zodiac long after the police have given up on the case. Paul Avery (Robert Downey, Jr.) is the quirky reporter on the same paper to whom the Zodiac sends encrypted letters, and Inspector Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) is a San Francisco detective pursuing the murderer. Gyllenhaal does a superb job portraying Graysmith, who allows his fixation with finding the Zodiac to ruin his family life. While Downey and Ruffalo are interesting to watch on screen, their characters are not totally defined and they are never quite convincing. I won’t ruin the film for you by disclosing some of the details that will cause your blood pressure to rise out of fear.
No one was ever arrested and tried for the murders. What disappointed me about this film was its ending. The principals discussed “people of interest” who might have been the Zodiac. The film was based on a true story so they couldn’t change the ending, but it was not enough to satisfy. I don’t have an answer to the problem, but if a movie were based on a fictitious script seeking to tell a similar story without a solution to wrap it up, it would be rejected by the critics and mass audiences.
The wonderful performances in “Zodiac” and the California scenery have a lot to do with it receiving a positive reception from critics and audiences, but I cannot give it a (+) based on that alone. If you decide to see the film it won’t be a wasted evening. It just won’t be a perfect one.
HS said: “If you like movies about newspaper reporters, police officers and psychopaths, you will get a charge out of ‘Zodiac.’”
