Zodiac

Two things: 1)Zodiac is nearly flawless. 2) I only really liked it.

Zodiac has great, award-worthy performances from Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr. (who's becoming a favorite of mine), and Mark Ruffalo in his best peformance since You Can Count on Me. Every time Robert Downey Jr. spoke, I was thinking, "Oscar, Robert. It's on its way."

The film looks great. The film is stylized at times, but not nearly as stylized as Fincher's other films. This is more a straight up drama, a police procedual and mystery, than it is a thriller. And it succeeds in spades with the drama, but the film's running time (2 1/2+ hours), made me rely on the characters for "entertainment." Luckily, the characters are complex and wonderfully portrayed by the cast. Still, the film is a labyrinth of information.

The film does a great job of capturing the fear of the period of the Zodiac killings. The media-savvy killer knew how to push people's buttons, and their buttons were always ripe 'fer a pushin'.

The costs of being a part of the search for the Zodiac are abundant and plague the latter parts of the characters' lives during the film. The costs of obssession and failure ripple on throughout.

Facts of the case come in droves, leaving me to backtrack to review all the previous information over and over again in my head. This wasn't terrible, but it did take my attention away from the action on screen for short periods of time. This left me perpetually playing a game of catch up for the majority of the film. I think a repeat viewing should prove more fruitful as a movie-going experience. I'll write again after the second viewing.

****