Yesterday we went to the early show of Zodiac at the Bethesda Row Cinema. I had been looking forward to this movie for a long time. I hadn’t read any of the reviews before seeing the movie, so as not to be influenced by anyone’s opinion. All I knew was that it is based on a true story of a serial killer from the 1970’s. The director, David Fincher, is one of my favorite directors-he also directed Se7en, Fight Club, The Game and Panic Room. Se7en is one of my favorite movies, and Fight Club is just freakin’ awesome. And, Zodiac stars the handsome and talented Jake Gyllenhaal—so I was certain I was going to love the movie.
Well, I was wrong. Oh David Fincher, what happened to you? Why did you disappoint me so much with this boring movie? How could this movie have come from the same man that made the cinematic achievement of Se7en, an incredible film-noir, gritty, terrifying and engrossing movie where he mastered the skill of creating the illusion and threat of violence without showing much of it?
Zodiac has several problems. For one, it is 2 hours and 40 minutes long. I looked at my watch far too often, counting down the minutes until it was finally over (oh god, two more hours of this…an hour and a half…an hour and fifteen minutes…) Please, someone make another cut of the movies and take out all the pointless dialogue in the middle, and the scenes of the two detectives chasing leads and getting nowhere, and instead focus on the more interesting story of Robert Graysmith, the cartoonist from San Francisco who takes it upon himself to solve the crime—that would make the movie quite a bit shorter.
But had it been shorter, I’m still not sure I would have enjoyed it. The story lacks suspense, it has no plot devices that bring the viewer into the story, and I felt no sympathy or even connection to any of the characters. It was like watching a bland true-crime drama on the history channel, where not even the murder scene recreations are exciting. And since they never caught the killer, one fact I did know about the case beforehand, it was pretty evident that the movie wouldn’t have any real resolution.
It just wasn’t good.
(And while I’m ranting, I might as well add that I HATE the bathrooms at the Bethesda Row Cinema. The toilets are about two inches from the stall doors, which means that you don’t have much room for your knees while you’re doing your business, especially if you “hover.” And, once you’re in, you’re in. You have to practically straddle the toilet or stand on it just to be able to open the door to get out. Ew. I’m sure I’ll be having nightmares about that whole experience.)
One redeeming thing about the whole experience is that we had lunch at Cactus Cantina after the movie. That was good.