Zodiac, Misery

Archieved Reviews
March 5th, 2007

Zodiac
Fincher, 2007



Zodiac is an interesting film on the famed ‘Zodiac’ killer from the late 60s and early 70s, who has still not been apprehended. The film, done by David Fincher, is at times compelling and there is a great atmosphere to it, but it seems to run a bit long, and it relies way too heavily on facts. Visually and stylistically, it has a great ‘70s’ feel to it, that really makes it feel like Fincher is sort of branching out, making something different. It ultimately is a really good, slick looking film, and it usually has a really nice atmosphere about it, with some masterful murder sequences and scenes of suspense.

Unfortunately they only make up a handful of minutes, where as the rest of the film basically runs on facts. Fact, facts, facts, it could almost be a documentary, but ultimately they are the films downfall, because facts do not make for a memorable movie. Near the end it really starts to drag, because it just is a blur of dates, names and conjectures. “He was there then therefore she must have known him and his friend must have been the killer!” While I did enjoy Zodiac, I don’t feel it was nearly as memorable or powerful as, say, Seven. Well done movie, very good cast, stylist visuals and atmosphere but in the long run this is not going to be something that Fincher is remembered for, and I personally find it already fading from memory, save for a few excellently done sequences.



---------------------

Misery
Reiner, 1990



One reason I don’t like horror movies is because the vast majority of them rely on cheap tricks to ‘scare’ you, but they are just cheating. They aren’t really scaring you, they are just pushing a few buttons to make you jump. They aren’t, at heart, scary. This is where movies like Misery find themselves separate. Instead of relying on a few jump scares, Misery actually comes up with a quite horrifying concept and runs with it. Basically, a famous writer gets in a horrible car accident, but is rescued by a woman who saves his life. But she isn’t about to just let him go, and soon the author comes to the all too terrifying realisation that he is not a prisoner of this crazy lady. ‘This crazy lady’ is brilliantly played by Kathy Bates, who displays shocking mood swings and dramatic shifts in character. She even earned an Oscar for it, and I for one think she deserved it. James Caan is overshadowed by her performance, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve credit, because he did a great job as the writer who is forced to comply with her insane wishes.

The movie itself has a dreadful feeling of desperation, and we really feel like we are stuck in that bed with James Caan. The atmosphere is pitch perfect, and almost the entire movie had me quite restless with apprehension, and I slowly grew to hate the mad nurse just as the poor author does. My complaint would be that it sometimes is a bit clichéd, with things like ‘lighting/thunder right when evil character shows up’ type things, and the ending gets a bit out of hand. But for the concept and the way the movie created such a dark, scary atmosphere and feeling of dread, I have to say I loved it. And of course a brilliant performance by Kathy Bates as an absolutely mad nurse helps as well. It isn’t perfect, but I found myself easily ignoring its mistakes as I was so into the mood of the film.