Zodiac

David Fincher is a brilliant director. He has created cult classics such as Se7en and Fight Club, as well the great films- The Game, Panic Room and Alien 3. In fact he is the only director who has never made a bad film, in my opinion. Well, that all changed with Zodiac. Zodiac is 2hrs and 40mins of pure unadulterated boredom! Actually, that is a bit harsh, I was interested for about 30mins worth of material. Granted most of that 30 minutes came towards the end and by that time I was so bored I just wanted the thing to end. Suspense is something Fincher does better than most and in this movie there was almost none of it. It has to be about the least interesting movie made about an interesting subject, ever.


The movie is about the Zodiac killings that ravaged northern California from 1969 until the mid 70s and the movie has no problem taking its time covering from 1968 until 1992. Now, movies often will span decades, but they usually show things in an interesting fashion, or just show things that happen. Nothing seems to happen in this movie after the last killing. In fact, even the killings are incredibly uneventful for the most part. Jake Gylenhall, Robert Downey Jr and Mark Ruffalo are each obsessed with this case. Jake is a newspaper cartoonist, Downey is a crime beat writer and Ruffalo is the detective assigned the case. The obsession ruins all 3 lives and also ruins 3hrs of my life. Each of the men are good, solid actors and here is no different. Downey is quirky, charming and funny, as usual. Jake is earnest and intense and Mark Ruffalo has the swagger and charm he usually carries with him, but it is all wasted in a script that doesn't deserve the talent it got.


The case was never solved and it probably won't ever be solved, although the movie makes a very good case for one particular suspect, but by the sounds of the people leaving the theater, no one really cared. In fact, with the exception of a brilliant scene towards the end of the movie taking place in a basement, I could have done without this entire mess. I can only hope this was a fluke for Fincher and he hasn't pulled an M. Night Shyamalan and lost all of his talent. Perhaps if he had focused more on what the case did to these people's lives and less time on the actual facts of the case, this movie would have been worlds more interesting, but since it was based off a book that was more concerned with finding the actual killer, maybe it wasn't all Fincher's fault. Well, here it is March and I already have my first big disappointment of the year in film.