Zodiac
Season 3 of The X-Files had one of the most memorable episodes of its run, Jose Chung’s “From Outer Space.” In it the titular author, Jose Chung is writing his non-fiction science fiction account of the abduction of two teenagers. He interviews Agent Scully (Wow!), but the whole abduction thing has a Rashomon effect and the truth is not so cut and dry. In fact no one knows exactly what happened. It is a mystery. As the interview with Agent Scully (Woot!) wraps up, she tells him that at least it has an ending, which is more than she can say for the rest of her cases.
That’s how Zodiac seems to have been. At least it has an ending. And at least we get some kind of closure. But (SPOILER ALERT) if Arthur Leigh Allen didn’t do it, there’s plenty of circumstantial evidence to have the fingers pointing at him.
What I found as I watched is that, in this very age, detective television shows such as the X-Files, CSI or Law and Order make it tough to watch police procedurals at the cinema. Each week Law and Order solves a crime and brings to justice the perpetrator. Zodiac neither solved the crime or brought to justice the perpetrator, but it had an ending whether satisfying or not Scully would’ve approved.
Zodiac still felt like an episode of Law and Order. It was divided into two parts. The “Order” part wherein Mark Ruffalo’s detective tries to piece together a case, and the “Law” part with Jake Gyllenhall picks up the case and identify the true killer and his motives so that he can be brought to justice. And that’s just the story’s structure.
Again like detective television shows, I expected the CSI to nail the villian. He couldn’t have been too smart to get away with it. There is always evidence that will incriminate. Yet, the detectives couldn’t find any. I was wondering if they didn’t have decent crime scene investigators in the 70s.
All in all, Zodiac felt more like television. It strikes out trying to be a film because it feels too much like crime shows on tv. If only they put the ominous chords associated with Law and Order, it may have been good.
3 of 5 stars.
UPDATE:
Matt Zoller Seitz really captures exactly what I wanted to say with his review.
