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| ZODIAC |
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| Actors: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., Chloe Sevigny, Brian Cox |
| Director: David Fincher |
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Studio: Paramount |
| DVD release: 24 July 2007 |
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Runtime: 2 hrs. 42 min. (1 disc) |
| Format: Subtitled, Color, Widescreen, NTSC |
| DVD features: Audio tracks (English, 5.1 Surround; French, 5.1 Surround; Spanish, 5.1 Surround), Subtitles (English) |
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It will be said that Zodiac is the All the President's Men of serial killer movies. That instead of Woodward and Bernstein, you get a detective and a cartoonist. While this observation might be true, the word that comes to mind when watching this is overview. That's what this movie's real accomplishment is - a thorough overview of the players and a sense of the times. Zodiac is a multiple-protagonist movie based on the book by Robert Graysmith, who happens to be a major character in the film played by Jake Gyllenhaal.
With a screenplay by James Vanderbilt and directed by David Fincher of Se7en and Panic Room fame, Zodiac has many stars and may storylines. Along with Gyllenhall as Graysmith, top-notch performances come from Mark Rufalo as David Toschi, the detective on the case, and Robert Downey Jr. as Paul Avery, the journalist who covered the case at the San Francisco Chronicle. The movie gently weaves between the Zodiac's killing scenes, the detectives trying to solve the case, the newspaper dealing with the ciphers, and ultimately Robert Graysmith's obsession with discovering the identity of the real Zodiac and desperate need for the face-to-face encounter.
The movie flows at a procedural pace. Some will find it to be a bit too slow, and perhaps too long. But even with its long running time, the movie never feels tedious. Fincher is known for his fascinating visual style; some of his trademarks are in this film, and other aspects of his style aren't. There is a great use of music, and the colorization of the movie really gives you the feel that you are in the late '60s into the '70's. There is also a great time lapse shot of the Transamerica building going up.
All in all, Zodiac is a very entertaining movie.
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