ZODIAC

I've had a week to let David Fincher's (Fight Club, Panic Room, Alien 3) ZODIAC seep into my consciousness. It's still boiling and leering like an impending migraine yet I can't help but think I've been shot by a crazed psychopathic killer. I wanted to enjoy the film a lot more than I did. It opens on Christmas eve when the alleged Zodiac makes his first attempt to kill. A very eerie meticulously crafted and utterly grizzly opening. Then we meet 'Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhal) an intelligent editorial cartoonist who stumbles upon his fellow reporters as they're introduced to the first cryptic message sent by the Zodiac.
We follow Graysmith a bit until we come across Inspector Toschi and Inspector Armstrong (Played wonderfully by Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards) as they try to track down the ZODIAC.
Fincher is a fine director. He has been know to film about 30 takes of one scene and working actors to death. Despite an over zealous work ethic ZODIAC is a well crafted beautiful suspense thriller. I can't say I was consistently entertained throughout the entire film. It kind of reminded me of "All the Presidents Men" meets "Summer of Sam." If you know what I mean. Some of the montages seem to repeat long after the audience has gotten the point. I also think a lot of the suspense was lost because I would assume that most of the audience knows that the Zodiac was never caught. The film (and the book) say that the Detectives had the Zodiac (Arthur Leigh Allen) but were unable to arrest him due to shoddy police work and the fact that the crimes were committed in different jurisdictions and the police officers were'nt legally allowed to share evidence. This was a little frustrating. The film does open up other possibilities but really points the finger at one man. This is a fine film, mostly entertaining and worth seeing in the theater if you don't mind an evenly paced thriller.