Movie Review #35 - Zodiac
Jun. 6th, 2007 08:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catalyst2Outside of my usual movie genre but going because of very cheap tickets, I got to see a very good movie tonight. This movie features a whole host of top actors all of whom were on their game.
First check of the watch - watch? what watch?
It is a long movie (158 minutes), make no mistake but the story needs that I think. Even though the movie is about the Zodiac killer, it is really about the way that external events out of our control can impact on people. All four leads (Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards and Robert Downey Jr.) are affected by being a part of the Zodiac events and the only one to walk away relatively intact is Anthony Edwards because he transfers out fairly early on. The others lose health (Robert Downey Jr.), marriage (Jake Gyllenhaal), professional respect (Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr.) and even their life (Robert Downey Jr.). Given that Zodiac would appear to have started killing (if we take the movie's "suspect of choice" as correct) after a series of real life events coalesced around him, even the antagonist of the movie started from the same point.
The movie portrays the chaotic events surrounding Zodiac very well - with all the ciphers and phone-ins and "secret" meetings adding more to that atmosphere of barely organized chaos. Interesting too are the technical difficulties of cooperation in an age without mobile phones or e-mail or PC's and when faxes were revolutionary bits of equipment. This results in a wonderfully atmospheric evocation of the times.
The endings is in some way not complete but that's good because this isn't a complete story either. Is Zodiac still out there? If so, why isn't he active? If he isn't out there, who the hell was he?
Overall a very good movie whose action sequences were all the more shocking by their infrequency. Great acting all around (there's even a Jossverse connection - Clea DuVall had a cameo role - WOOHOO!) and a tense well-written story.
First check of the watch - watch? what watch?
It is a long movie (158 minutes), make no mistake but the story needs that I think. Even though the movie is about the Zodiac killer, it is really about the way that external events out of our control can impact on people. All four leads (Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards and Robert Downey Jr.) are affected by being a part of the Zodiac events and the only one to walk away relatively intact is Anthony Edwards because he transfers out fairly early on. The others lose health (Robert Downey Jr.), marriage (Jake Gyllenhaal), professional respect (Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr.) and even their life (Robert Downey Jr.). Given that Zodiac would appear to have started killing (if we take the movie's "suspect of choice" as correct) after a series of real life events coalesced around him, even the antagonist of the movie started from the same point.
The movie portrays the chaotic events surrounding Zodiac very well - with all the ciphers and phone-ins and "secret" meetings adding more to that atmosphere of barely organized chaos. Interesting too are the technical difficulties of cooperation in an age without mobile phones or e-mail or PC's and when faxes were revolutionary bits of equipment. This results in a wonderfully atmospheric evocation of the times.
The endings is in some way not complete but that's good because this isn't a complete story either. Is Zodiac still out there? If so, why isn't he active? If he isn't out there, who the hell was he?
Overall a very good movie whose action sequences were all the more shocking by their infrequency. Great acting all around (there's even a Jossverse connection - Clea DuVall had a cameo role - WOOHOO!) and a tense well-written story.
