Zodiac

last updated 8 January 2015

Zodiac is a deliberate, disturbing thriller, said Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly. Director David Fincher's knotty procedural is more ambitious, and perhaps less audience-friendly, than Seven, his previous serial-killer movie. Based on the unsolved Zodiac killings in 1970s San Francisco, this film doesn't have a traditional Hollywood story arc. Instead, Zodiac's suspense is 'œrooted in the scrappiest tidbits of bureaucratic protocol,' so that red herrings and loose ends become integral to the story. Excellent performances make Zodiac engrossing, said Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle. Jake Gyllenhaal carries his weight as Chronicle staff member Robert Graysmith, and Mark Ruffalo is effectively rumpled as detective David Toschi. But Robert Downey Jr., as alcoholic reporter Paul Avery, really electrifies the film. 'œAfter 20 years of these colorful, detailed performances, it might be time to stop thinking of Downey as a quirky original or an eccentric favorite and start thinking of him as a significant American artist.' Zodiac is the kind of movie that gets better on second viewing, said Carrie Rickey in The Philadelphia Inquirer. When you're not waiting for the big revelation—it never comes—you have time to notice the way 'œtextured visual and audio elements get us into the characters' heads and spaces.' The film's nicotine-stained, wood-paneled offices, radio hits, and rotary phones evoke the 1970s to perfection.

Rating: R