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Review: Zodiac (2007)
Wow, this movie was incredibly thrilling. When I started this movie, I wasn't sure how historically accurate it was supposed to be, so I just watched it as a piece of fiction, and was surprised by the end of the movie when we saw a few lines outlining what had happened to the major players in the story.
Anyway, this movie had my attention. It was a bit long and the ending wasn't super satisfying, but I thought the story telling and the sequence of events was very interesting.
Spoilers.
Story
The movie follows Robert Graysmith, a cartoonist who went on to write a book about the Zodiac Killer. At the beginning of the movie, he was simply on the sidelines. As a cartoonist, he had no business doing any investigative research, and most of it was officially done by either the police (like David Toschi) or journalists (like Paul Avery). That being said, he still had some interesting insights, such as his knowledge on ciphers.
Over time, people were taken off the case, Paul Avery for his drinking problems and conflicts at the Chronicle, and Toschi because of administrative issues for which he could not move forward in the investigation. As an outsider, nothing was stopping Graysmith from continuing his research, which he did.
His research ultimately brought him to conclude that Arthur Leigh Allen was the Zodiac Killer. Unfortunately, there was not much physical evidence to pin the crimes on him, such as the conflicting handwriting analyses, and most evidence that Graysmith had gathered was technically circumstantial. At the end of the movie, Mageau, a victim who'd survived, pointed to Arthur Leigh Allen as the culprit, and that is supposed to be our closure.
I can't say that I was satisfied with this closure. And because this movie was supposed to be based on real life, we shouldn't expect a super satisfying conclusion either. Mageau pointing out Allen is supposed to be somewhat of a moral victory for Graysmith. But as a viewer, I wasn't totally satisfied. Part of it was that none of our main investigators got emotional closure from it. Another reason, which is related to the first, was that the physical evidence never ended up matching. Which was why Toschi could never get closure. All that Graysmith had presented, like he said, was circumstantial. He needed physical evidence, and the story couldn't provide that.
All that being said, I think I am just being a tad nitpicky with the ending. It just wasn't my favourite, but it wasn't a bad ending. Otherwise, the writing for this movie was very carefully crafted and put together. I was impressed with some of the fast-paced dialogue we got near the beginning, when the various departments were coordinating their information. And as mentioned, the sequence of events in which we followed the investigation was very intriguing.
There was some writing that I didn't find super interesting, and I think it was written in to emphasize the fact that this is a real story about real people. In particular, I wasn't super interested in the personal lives of the investigators. It's been seen on screen so many times that it's gotten boring; investigator whose investigation eats up their entire life and their marriage/family life suffers for it. Not saying the writers are wrong for including it because they wanted to stay as close to the trut as possible, but I think this is one of the obvious limitations we see when a real life story is adapted to be entertainment. Things that are true may not always be entertaining.
Overall, the story was good. Not my favourite ending, but I'll accept it.
Production
The production quality of this movie was terrific, as expected from Fincher. No complaints about the writing. All of our actors were terrific. They were all very charming. No complaints about the visual story telling. It suited the thriller story very well.
Characters
All of these characters are real people, but I am going to talk about them like fictional characters, since this is a movie that is meant to entertain.
Robert Graysmith
Graysmith started off on the sidelines as someone who was just very interested in the murders, particularly because he was interested in puzzles, and the cipher intrigued him. Over time, he became more immersed in the mystery of the story.
Whereas Avery lost his bearings by inserting himself in the investigation, I think Graysmith managed to stay relatively sane by investigating from the sidelines. When Avery was still active in the investigation, Graysmith was always doing his research independently, though at this point, he was already somewhat frenzied about the case. We saw this on his first date with Melanie.
I do think it was a cliche that Graysmith ended up marrying Melanie and having kids with her, and that Melanie ended up separating from him because of his obsession with the case. She knew that he was obsessed with the case and yet she still stayed with him, surprised that he would let the case infiltrate their personal family lives, when that's exactly what he let happen to himself. I'm just saying, Melanie saw the red flags and she still fell for them.
Anyway, even though Graysmith did his investigation from the sidelines, he did end up becoming the face of the investigation when he went on the news, which of course angered Melanie, but also gave him tips on new possible suspects. That was how he was led to Rick Marshall (and Bob Vaughn) as possible suspects, though those ended up not working out.
At the end of the movie, Graysmith was only able to present what he could find and get his hands on, which was mostly circumstantial and could technically be coincidences (though unlikely). He did want to help Toschi move forward with arresting the culprit and having him tried, but Toschi's hands were tied, and Graysmith could only publish his findings in the book.
At the end of the movie, we were informd that Graysmith still enjoys a good relationship with his kids, which gives me nothing because he could have a good relationship with his kids but a bad one with his wife. So this is one of the ways in which I felt that the emotional closure was not there.
Dave Toschi
Toschi was the police detective who we followed. He was just as passionate as Graysmith about the investigation, but he was more concerned with the technical things. Like he said, he was a cop, and he had to use cop methodology to catch this killer.
We saw him coordinating often with police departments in other counties, as well as experts in official professional capacities to collect evidence. Early on, he would get frustrated when guys like Avery took control of public perception without consulting the cops.
Toschi was suspected of having written one of the Zodiac Killer letters and had transferred him out of homicide. After that, he was officially off the investigation. He did entertain Graysmith's investigation, telling him who he should talk to and such, but at the end of the day, he had nothing to pin the crime onto Allen.
Paul Avery
Avery was a journalist. I think he represented the sort of journalist who would do independent research to get ahead of and look smarter than the police, which he did. Later on, his drinking problems compounded, and he started acting so rashly that the Chronicle couldn't even handle him anymore. Afterwards, he basically gave up on the case. When Graysmith came to vist him to talk about the case, Avery implied that he'd given up on the case as well, and that he was only in it for the fame before. Now that the Zodiac Killer had fallen off most people's radars, there was no reason for him to keep pursuing the story.
Overall
This was a well written story. It wasn't a perfect movie, but it had my attention for the most part, even for such a long movie. I would recommend it as an interesting mystery thriller, though not with a satisfying end.
Anyway, this movie had my attention. It was a bit long and the ending wasn't super satisfying, but I thought the story telling and the sequence of events was very interesting.
Spoilers.
Story
The movie follows Robert Graysmith, a cartoonist who went on to write a book about the Zodiac Killer. At the beginning of the movie, he was simply on the sidelines. As a cartoonist, he had no business doing any investigative research, and most of it was officially done by either the police (like David Toschi) or journalists (like Paul Avery). That being said, he still had some interesting insights, such as his knowledge on ciphers.
Over time, people were taken off the case, Paul Avery for his drinking problems and conflicts at the Chronicle, and Toschi because of administrative issues for which he could not move forward in the investigation. As an outsider, nothing was stopping Graysmith from continuing his research, which he did.
His research ultimately brought him to conclude that Arthur Leigh Allen was the Zodiac Killer. Unfortunately, there was not much physical evidence to pin the crimes on him, such as the conflicting handwriting analyses, and most evidence that Graysmith had gathered was technically circumstantial. At the end of the movie, Mageau, a victim who'd survived, pointed to Arthur Leigh Allen as the culprit, and that is supposed to be our closure.
I can't say that I was satisfied with this closure. And because this movie was supposed to be based on real life, we shouldn't expect a super satisfying conclusion either. Mageau pointing out Allen is supposed to be somewhat of a moral victory for Graysmith. But as a viewer, I wasn't totally satisfied. Part of it was that none of our main investigators got emotional closure from it. Another reason, which is related to the first, was that the physical evidence never ended up matching. Which was why Toschi could never get closure. All that Graysmith had presented, like he said, was circumstantial. He needed physical evidence, and the story couldn't provide that.
All that being said, I think I am just being a tad nitpicky with the ending. It just wasn't my favourite, but it wasn't a bad ending. Otherwise, the writing for this movie was very carefully crafted and put together. I was impressed with some of the fast-paced dialogue we got near the beginning, when the various departments were coordinating their information. And as mentioned, the sequence of events in which we followed the investigation was very intriguing.
There was some writing that I didn't find super interesting, and I think it was written in to emphasize the fact that this is a real story about real people. In particular, I wasn't super interested in the personal lives of the investigators. It's been seen on screen so many times that it's gotten boring; investigator whose investigation eats up their entire life and their marriage/family life suffers for it. Not saying the writers are wrong for including it because they wanted to stay as close to the trut as possible, but I think this is one of the obvious limitations we see when a real life story is adapted to be entertainment. Things that are true may not always be entertaining.
Overall, the story was good. Not my favourite ending, but I'll accept it.
Production
The production quality of this movie was terrific, as expected from Fincher. No complaints about the writing. All of our actors were terrific. They were all very charming. No complaints about the visual story telling. It suited the thriller story very well.
Characters
All of these characters are real people, but I am going to talk about them like fictional characters, since this is a movie that is meant to entertain.
Robert Graysmith
Graysmith started off on the sidelines as someone who was just very interested in the murders, particularly because he was interested in puzzles, and the cipher intrigued him. Over time, he became more immersed in the mystery of the story.
Whereas Avery lost his bearings by inserting himself in the investigation, I think Graysmith managed to stay relatively sane by investigating from the sidelines. When Avery was still active in the investigation, Graysmith was always doing his research independently, though at this point, he was already somewhat frenzied about the case. We saw this on his first date with Melanie.
I do think it was a cliche that Graysmith ended up marrying Melanie and having kids with her, and that Melanie ended up separating from him because of his obsession with the case. She knew that he was obsessed with the case and yet she still stayed with him, surprised that he would let the case infiltrate their personal family lives, when that's exactly what he let happen to himself. I'm just saying, Melanie saw the red flags and she still fell for them.
Anyway, even though Graysmith did his investigation from the sidelines, he did end up becoming the face of the investigation when he went on the news, which of course angered Melanie, but also gave him tips on new possible suspects. That was how he was led to Rick Marshall (and Bob Vaughn) as possible suspects, though those ended up not working out.
At the end of the movie, Graysmith was only able to present what he could find and get his hands on, which was mostly circumstantial and could technically be coincidences (though unlikely). He did want to help Toschi move forward with arresting the culprit and having him tried, but Toschi's hands were tied, and Graysmith could only publish his findings in the book.
At the end of the movie, we were informd that Graysmith still enjoys a good relationship with his kids, which gives me nothing because he could have a good relationship with his kids but a bad one with his wife. So this is one of the ways in which I felt that the emotional closure was not there.
Dave Toschi
Toschi was the police detective who we followed. He was just as passionate as Graysmith about the investigation, but he was more concerned with the technical things. Like he said, he was a cop, and he had to use cop methodology to catch this killer.
We saw him coordinating often with police departments in other counties, as well as experts in official professional capacities to collect evidence. Early on, he would get frustrated when guys like Avery took control of public perception without consulting the cops.
Toschi was suspected of having written one of the Zodiac Killer letters and had transferred him out of homicide. After that, he was officially off the investigation. He did entertain Graysmith's investigation, telling him who he should talk to and such, but at the end of the day, he had nothing to pin the crime onto Allen.
Paul Avery
Avery was a journalist. I think he represented the sort of journalist who would do independent research to get ahead of and look smarter than the police, which he did. Later on, his drinking problems compounded, and he started acting so rashly that the Chronicle couldn't even handle him anymore. Afterwards, he basically gave up on the case. When Graysmith came to vist him to talk about the case, Avery implied that he'd given up on the case as well, and that he was only in it for the fame before. Now that the Zodiac Killer had fallen off most people's radars, there was no reason for him to keep pursuing the story.
Overall
This was a well written story. It wasn't a perfect movie, but it had my attention for the most part, even for such a long movie. I would recommend it as an interesting mystery thriller, though not with a satisfying end.