David Fincher’s Zodiac opened on the first weekend of March 2007, and given the spectacular reviews as well as Fincher’s own popularity as the director of Seven and Fight Club, it should reasonably have made some noise at the box office. Instead, it opened with a shrug-inducing $13 million, with American filmgoers electing instead to spend a whopping $39 million on the weekend’s other new release, the imbecilic Tim Allen flick Wild Hogs.
Charlotteans can now atone for their sins by finally catching up with this impressive thriller, which closes out the Main Library’s current series Extra! Extra! Celebrating the Newspaper Picture. A satisfying hybrid of a journalism yarn, a police procedural and a serial killer flick, Zodiac (based on a true story) stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist who becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth behind the series of grisly slayings plaguing the Bay Area. Yet he isn’t alone in his fanatical devotion to the case: The mystery also haunts the dreams of a Chronicle reporter (Robert Downey Jr.) and a local detective (Mark Ruffalo), and as the years march on, the trio’s pursuit of justice (or is it merely ego gratification?) begins to take its toll on health, marriage and career. Free admission. April 7, 2 p.m. ImaginOn’s Wells Fargo Playhouse, 300 E. 7th St. – Matt Brunson
This article appears in Apr 3-9, 2012.
