Yesterday I had the good fortune of attending a pre-release screening of the new movie “Zodiac.” This movie is about the real life serial killer who called himself “Zodiac” in letters he taunted the police with. The movie seems to follow the real events of the case (though I’m no expert on these matters) and this makes it somewhat more interesting.
The actors in this movie all do a terrific job, especially Jake Gyllenhaal. The movie does a good job of helping you feel the panic that must have been about in San Francisco due to the Zodiac as well. I particularly liked how music was used to add to the setting.
Unfortunately, the movie follows real life far too well. Unless you want to feel like the detectives who had their lives sucked away trying to solve this case, you’ll find the movie lacks appropriate pacing. Zodiac follows the true life storyline so closely that we’re treated to 30 minutes of excitement and 2 hours of tension that eventually becomes boredom as we desparately hope for a break in the case, or at least for the Zodiac to do something new.
The movie can also be disorienting, jumping large spans of time almost randomly and without warning, but this is important since the killings were quite spread out. I wouldn’t pay money to see this movie, but if you have the chance to see it for free as I did, you might not be completely disappointed. I rate it at a measely 2.3π.
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