Putting the Clues together in ZODIAC (2007)

The final "winner" of the crime poll from last week is finally here. Zodiac is the film that inspired the story of Dirty Harry, and it's even shown in this movie. I was a little worried that I would be bored by this movie if it felt like I had seen the story before. After all, that's kind of what happened with Serpico and American Gangster for me. I only knew the most minor details about the story in Zodiac, but I had no idea at all who was starring in it. It was certainly a surprise to see Robert Downey Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal pop up on screen. It also has Mark Ruffalo, who will be in Avengers next year with R.D.J. but that's beside the point. What we really want to know is if this 157 minute long movie bored, or captivated me? Find out after the jump.


The story here is based on real events. And not the kind of "real events" that movies like Paranormal Activity and Apollo 18 say they're based on. This one is the real deal. The Zodiac serial killer was a real guy back in the 70's that went on and on for years without ever being caught. This movie reveals the details of the investigation by the police, the reporters, and the tireless effort of a newspaper cartoonist who wouldn't give up, even after everyone else had.

Robert (the newspaper cartoonist) discussing the Zodiac case with crime reporter Paul Avery

Wow, was this movie ever long! It's been a while since I've seen a movie that was this long, and really felt this long. I wouldn't say I was completely bored, but there were definitely section where I just wanted them to get moving. Other times, when letters from the killer would come in or the killer was actually on the attack, or interviewing a suspect, it definitely had my attention. Basically, I was fully engaged whenever something directly from the killer was involved. But whenever they were endlessly talking about handwriting or how to decode a code, I just found myself mentally checking out.

Interviewing one of the suspects... Hey, that guy was in Fargo

The acting seemed pretty good, but most of the time I wasn't interested by the characters. I liked the cops, one of whom Mark Ruffalo plays, Inspector David Toschi. I was surprised to find myself a little disappointed by Robert Downey Jr., but he wasn't really playing an "over-the-top" type character. I think that's just what I enjoy about him, when he's a little crazy, and he just wasn't like that very much here. Similarly, Jake Gyllenhaal played a real nice guy, and a pretty good father, but he was just too plain and I was mostly kinda bored with him. Well, bored is too strong of a word. I just wasn't excited or interested much with what was going on with the characters.

Robert tries his best to get the police to work with him after they've all but given up

Once years and years had gone by in the movie's internal timeline, and the police have lost all their leads, or didn't have enough evidence to move forward on certain suspects, Robert realizes he's still obsessed with wanting to know who the killer is. I was a little more interested in this back half of the story, because now he has to use loop holes to talk to police and convince people to just turn their backs while he looks in confidential files. Because he's not bound to only a single jurisdiction worth of evidence and files like the police are, he is able to link many more things together than they ever could. This was almost like a whole new movie tacked on the back end of another one, but I can understand that it possibly wouldn't have made much sense without all the previous build-up. But honestly, it was like the real movie only just started 1h40mins into the film, and that whole first part was just an introduction.

Sometimes it can be hard to make a movie that is just based on real life seem interesting. Let's face it, if real life were always so interesting, we wouldn't have films and other forms of entertainment. Zodiac does its best, and it does a pretty good job, but it just wasn't really a movie for me. I didn't find the ending very satisfying either, but once again, life can be like that. It's not like they had a choice on how to end it, that's just how the history played out. I'd have a real hard time personally recommending this, it's just so long and drawn out. On the other hand, I think fans of history films or maybe even serial killer stories might find something to like in this. Too bad it just wasn't really for me.