Review:

Zodiac the film feels a lot like the Zodiac case itself; so much comes (too much to take in at times) really fast and then dies down and then ramps up and then dies down. The entire Zodiac case was before my time, so I don't really have a historical reference point, but the ebb and flow of the movie (and thusly the case) feels real, but unfortunately, it isn't always conducive to a well paced movie. The film is constantly jumping in time to the next Zodiac "break", which is a new flume of energy that inevitably fades away. I can't vouch for historical accuracy, but I never questioned it, but I feel like a little but of condensing to make the story easier to follow and eliminate some of the lulls. They do manage to juggle a lot of characters and most of them felt pretty fleshed out, but Zodiac is much more of a Robert Graysmith memoir about his experiences during the case and we never get much on him. Robert Graysmith is good as a narrative thread, but we never really understand his drive or what's going on in between breaks in the case. The directing and cinematography do well to make it feel like a real movie and not a Lifetime dramatization and everyone but Robert Downey Jr (who, again, just plays himself and not the character) give great performances. I appreciate the realism and dedication to keeping the story authentic, but at over two hours and forty minutes, some streamlining of the narrative would have been a huge help.