Zodiac

4/5 Stars
Rated R - Rated R - Rated R - Rated R

This was not bad, not bad at all. Surprisingly suspenseful and compelling. This story has been told before: extreme circumstances draw people together but prolonged passion for the cause begins ruining lives and families. The thing that keeps this plot from dying is the constant reminder that (most of) this really happened. I'm not an aficionado on the Zodiac killer, but most of the events in this film were familiar to me and to see someones interpretation on how these events might have impacted these individuals was great.

The cons: The film became tedious as the focus of the film switches from law enforcement/journalism to fanatic problem solving. Once the change had occurred, things became interesting again. Also, this movie was too gruesome for it's own good. In what I perceive to be an attempt to make the crimes more distasteful and drive the motivation of characters in the plot, the movie ends up driving closer to horror film extremes. (Granted, these crimes WERE gory and horrifying, but I believe the balance between showing the brutality and masking it at just the right moment could have been more even. Furthermore, I think that putting more care into that balance would have driven the film to PG-13 territory and made it a hit.)