I’d seen the previews for Zodiac some time ago and thought they looked fairly lame. As a result, I almost didn’t watch this movie. Then, Friday I spoke with Travis and he mentioned he might watch it this weekend. That’s when we got to talking about David Fincher films.
See, it used to be that I never paid attention to things like the director or the screenplay writer. None of that stuff mattered because, like almost everyone, I only focused on the “stars” involved. And it remained that way for a long time…until the day I discovered that my two favorite (at the time) films were done by the same director.
The films were Fight Club and SE7EN. Both films were directed by David Fincher. So, despite how horrible the previews seemed to me, I figured Travis’s words of wisdom would suffice: “It’s David Fincher.”
So I watched Zodiac today. And to begin with, I have to say: It’s David Fincher.
The film started off with some great tension and followed up with a terrific mystery. Even though I knew a bit about the Zodiac Killer (since I did a little research on him while writing The Outlaw), the movie drew out the mystery wonderfully. Fincher did a good job of moving between various suspects, making them seem guilty beyond all doubt, but then showing they didn’t fit some aspect of the evidence; moving on to another potential suspect, then going back to a previous one, etc. As a result, it had a very realistic feel to the movie.
In the end, it was way better than the preview lead me to believe it would be. The only drawback, which really isn’t much of a drawback, is the length. The film is 158 minutes long, which translates into 2h 38m. Which wasn’t so bad except the theater played roughly two hours of previews before the film began too…(okay, end sarcasm mode: it was really only about half an hour of previews, but that pushed the total time up well over three hours).
So on to the grades. Obviously, I give Fincher high marks as a director, so I’m somewhat biased–but then, so is everyone. I still give him an A+ for the film. It was a long movie that has good replay potential (unlike The Number 23); even when you know “whodunnit” in the eyes of the film–the real case is still officially open–the characters and the story are written well enough to make another viewing worthwhile.
Acting wasn’t stellar, but definitely got the job done. While Gyllenhaal isn’t going to win an Oscar here, his performance was still a B+. Maybe even an A-. The same can be said of Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey, Jr. No definite A acting there, but solid Bs.
As a whole, I’d rate the movie as a A-. When it comes out on DVD, I’ll most certainly pick up a copy. Other Fincher fans will probably want to pick it up too. Those who aren’t fans…well, you ought to be.
