2007: Zodiac (Best of the Noughties: Lists and Suggestions #6)

Zodiac is a film about the real serial killer of the same nickname and, like most of those films, it has someone else at its center. In this case it's Paul Avery, a cartoonist whose newspaper receives mail from the killer. Not unlike Spike Lee's Summer of Sam (but better), the first 90 minutes or so of this 160 minutes film chronicle the mood in the San Francisco area where the killer plies his trade, while Avery tries to find out who the killer is. And then - the murders just stop. The rest of the film is concerned with Avery's attempt to prove his guesses about the identity of the killer were right - a kind of man on a mission to make a point story.

So, it's basically two films. That worked very well for Vertigo, arguably less well for Psycho, and it doesn't work here at all. Which is a shame: Use of music, acting and, first and foremost, the production design are excellent. One just wishes the parties responsible had had a better story to work with. (6.5)