Delicious As Hell

Went to see Zodiac Friday night. Eh.

All of the reviewers I trust loved it, so I was expecting great things. It wasn't that great.

For one, it's an hour too long. Coming in at over 2.5 hours, the last hour-and-half of the movie is Jake Gyllenhaal running around being annnoying. It's the same scene 40 different ways. Jake digs around the library, begs cops for information, pisses off his wife. Then Jake digs around in some police files, begs interviewees for information, pisses off the cops. This ad nauseum.

I've seen Jake in three different movies (Zodiac, The Good Girl and Brokeback Mountain) and he's annoying in every one. I can't decide if he's just playing annoying characters or if he is in fact annoying. It's starting to seem like the latter.

I imagine casting agents realizing they need someone to play an irritating, neurotic weenie and saying, "Call Gyllenhaal, see if he's available!"

But I digress. Zodiac is like two different movies, the first being pretty interesting, with longer, character developing scenes and great period-piece shots of the 1970s. My favorites (of course) were those of the San Fransico Chronicle's newsroom pre-computers and cubicles. You can almost smell the smoke and the ink.

The second half, though, is an editing nightmare of short, clipped scenes, none of which lead to anything or that you can really sink in to.

Besides that, I wanted to walk out after the second killing in Zodiac. I thought after the first the worst was over. It wasn't. The second killing scene was horribly gruelling and painful to watch and I hate watching things that are gruelling and painful. My world is plenty scary, I don't need it in the movies.

Since the Zodiac killer was never found, the movie is about how he briefly terrorized the San Francisco valley and the men who became obsessed with catching him. It's also a movie about how their obsession destroyed them.

If you believe the movie, the hunt for the Zodiac killer played a role in destroying the marriage of the San Francisco Chronicle's former cartoonist, Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), who becomes obsessed with the case and eventually pens two books about it. (The movie is based on these books and is really Graysmith's story more so than Zodiac's. I suspect the title "Graysmith" wouldn't sell many movie tickets, though.)

The Zodiac killings (of which there are five that can be definitively linked to Zodiac) also apparently destroyed crime reporter Paul Avery, sending him to the bottle for comfort. Though really, he seemed pretty fond of the bottle even before Zodiac came along.

Which brings me to a few good things about movie. Robert Downey Jr. (who plays ace reporter Paul Avery) is as weird and entertaining as he always is. Sporting a wickedly awesome goatee, Downey delivers the best lines and is perfect as the schmoozing, boozing reporter.

And Mark Ruffalo, how have you never caught my eye before? Meow!

He's awesome as police inspector David Toschi, and I loved every close-up of his mop of curly black hair, strong jaw line and full sideburns. (Call me.)

On the flip side of this, I was forced to endure Chloe Sevigny's sour face. (Chloe, why the long face?) There are few actresses I can't stand to look at, but she and Scarlett Johansson are two of them. (Though I do appreciate Scarlett in the new Justin Timberlake video.)

But the best part of the movie was a brief scene with Gyllenhaal and an old man who sells coffee and doughnuts in the lobby of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Gyllenhaal walks over to the old-timer and asks, How is the coffee today? The old man says nothing but points to a sign behind him that reads, "Hot Coffee. Delicious As Hell."

Sold.