ZODIAC
Director:David Fincher
Cast:1.Jake Gyllenhal
2.Mark Ruffalo
3.Robert Downey Jr.
4.Anthony Edwards
5.Chloë Sevigny
6.Brian Cox
7.John Carroll Lynch
8.Dermot Mulroney
'Zodiac" is the "All the President's Men" of serial killer movies, with Woodward and Bernstein played by a cop and a cartoonist. It's not merely "based" on California's infamous Zodiac killings, but seems to exude the very stench and provocation of the case. The killer, who was never caught, generously supplied so many clues that Sherlock Holmes might have cracked the case in his sitting room. But only a newspaper cartoonist was stubborn enough, and tunneled away long enough, to piece together a convincing case against a man who was perhaps guilty.
The film is a police procedural crossed with a newspaper movie, but free of most of the cliches of either. Its most impressive accomplishment is to gather a bewildering labyrinth of facts and suspicions over a period of years, and make the journey through this maze frightening and suspenseful. I could imagine becoming hopelessly mired in the details of the Zodiac investigation, but director
David Fincher ("
Seven") and his writer,
James Vanderbilt, find their way with clarity through the murk. In a film with so many characters, the casting by Laray Mayfield is also crucial; like the only eyewitness in the case, we remember a face once we've seen it.
The film opens with a sudden, brutal, bloody killing, followed by others not too long after -- five killings the police feel sure Zodiac committed, although others have been attributed to him. But this film will not be a bloodbath. The killer does his work in the earlier scenes of the film, and then, when he starts sending encrypted letters to newspapers, the police and reporters try to do theirs.
The two lead inspectors on the case are David Toschi (
Mark Ruffalo) and William Armstrong (
Anthony Edwards). Toschi, famous at the time, tutored
Steve McQueen for "
Bullitt" and was the role model for Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry. Ruffalo plays him not as a hotshot but as a dogged officer who does things by the book because he believes in the book. Edwards' character, his partner, is more personally worn down by the sheer vicious nature of the killer and his taunts.
At the
San Francisco Chronicle, although we meet several staffers, the key players are ace reporter Paul Avery (
Robert Downey Jr., bearded, chain-smoking, alcoholic) and editorial cartoonist
Robert Graysmith (
Jake Gyllenhaal). These characters are real, and indeed the film is based on Graysmith's books about the case.
Some People said that this movie was not good enough but critics praised it. It is a thrilling murder mystery genre which has all the elements of Mystery as the film makers didn't reveal the killer till the end as they wanted the audience to research on it. They kept the suspense till the end about who actually the killer was?? Was it Rick Marshall, or his friend Vaughn or Aurther Leigh Allen ?? Even I was confused a little bit that who is the killer. ?? My only complaint with the film is that it became bore in the middle of the plot. It was interesting at the beginning as well as the end. This movie has the potential to be one of the best thriller/mystery movie ever made.
Here are the 3 Things I liked about the Movie:
1) Definitely liked the performances of actors in the movie, specially RDJ.
2) As like other murder mystery which gets revealed at the end, this movie kept the audience stuck to the seats inorder to find out the killer.
3) No unnecessary Music heard in the movie.
Here are the 3 Things I Disliked about the Movie:
1) The film lost its plot a little in the middle of the movie.
2)The movie turned out to bore somewhere in between the police investigation.
3) The police department was inefficient and they gave up quite easily while a cartoonist became obsessed to find out the killer and he found it.
So this was Honest Review of the movie Zodiac.
So, this was the review from the Underrated Reviewer. Hope you liked the review.Let me know in the comments which next film should I review . Till then over and out....
