--- title: "Zodiac: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/zodiac/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/zodiac" critics_score: 79 critics_reviews: 8 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Zodiac (2007): what the critics said Critics' score 79 from 8 reviews: 7 positive, 1 mixed, 0 negative. Most critics respond warmly to Zodiac, praising David Fincher’s patient attention to the investigators and journalists consumed by the case rather than the killer alone. The praise clusters around the meticulous period detail, the handling of a sprawling investigation and the performances, with Robert Downey Jr. drawing particular notice alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Mark Ruffalo. The reviews repeatedly find the routines of police work and reporting compelling, with suspense growing from accumulated detail and the strain of prolonged obsession. The reservations concern pace, repetition and how much restraint serves the film. Empire admires the character study but misses Fincher’s usual stylistic flair, while the Evening Standard supplies the clearest dissent, finding the investigation often sluggish despite its care. The spread is fairly wide, though predominantly positive: what admirers find absorbing in the painstaking pursuit, the less convinced find hard work. ## The AV Club — Scott Tobias Rating A. 2 March 2007. Fincher's masterful, obsessive procedural about a cold case stands out for its strict chronology and focus on what happens after public interest fades. It ranks among the director's most personal and accomplished works, resembling All the President's Men in its diligence. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/zodiac-1798202434) ## Total Film Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 18 May 2007. Fincher delivers a meticulous, responsible police procedural focused on the obsessed investigators rather than the killer himself, achieving impressive scale, clarity, and ambition despite some overly precise visuals. [Read the review](https://www.gamesradar.com/zodiac-review/) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 18 May 2007. The critic finds Fincher's film a seductive and confident thriller about the unsolved Zodiac murders, praising its chilling scenes, outstanding period detail and rich settings, strong performances from Downey Jr, Gyllenhaal and Ruffalo, and overall ambition despite the long runtime and lack of resolution. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/may/18/thriller.robertdowneyjr) ## The Hollywood Reporter — The Associated Press Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 22 February 2007. Fincher delivers a compelling cat-and-mouse procedural that excels as thriller, police investigation and newsroom drama with strong period detail. The capable cast, especially Robert Downey Jr., helps make it one of the director's most accomplished films. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/zodiac-158241/) ## Time Out — Ben Walters Rating 4/5. 15 May 2007. The film shifts from a procedural into an observation of the fruitless compulsion to solve puzzles, with bravura suspense sequences and a tone that moves from genre expectations to curious sympathy or mockery. Fincher captures the sprawl of obsession over years without delivering a neat resolution. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/zodiac) ## Slant Magazine Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 9 March 2007. The film is a good but not flawless rebuke to Hollywood closure, strong on ideas, visuals and the limits of certainty despite some conventional elements and repetition. Fincher's use of HD cinematography powerfully underscores the unknowability at the story's core. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/darkness-visible-david-finchers-zodiac/) ## Empire — Kim Newman Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 27 April 2007. The film is a detailed, patient character study of men consumed by the unsolved case, with strong performances, but it requires patience and lacks Fincher's usual stylistic flair while becoming more suspenseful near its uncertain conclusion. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/zodiac-review/) ## Evening Standard Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). Festival review. Fincher presents a careful, thorough investigation that can be engrossing but often sluggish, rewarding patience with its meticulous recreation of events while preferring other serial-killer films like Summer of Sam. [Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/searching-for-signs-of-the-zodiac-7395271.html) ## Screen Daily 25 February 2007. Festival review. A dense but hypnotic and starkly involving account of unsolved murders, part investigative ensemble and part journalistic procedural that showcases the existential toll of obsession. Fincher's most mature work to date, it offers novelistic richness for discriminating audiences despite its length and lack of overt thrills. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/zodiac/4031156.article) ## Sight and Sound — Graham Fuller 1 June 2007. Fincher blends newsroom drama and police procedural in a mature, restrained study of obsession that avoids genre thrills and heroics. The film stands out for its flat, mundane tone evoking the grind of police work and its focus on male camaraderie and psychological depth. [Read the review](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/3908) ## The New Yorker — David Denby 12 March 2007. Denby calls the film superbly made but strange, noting its shift to a multifaceted procedural on obsession rather than a standard thriller. He singles out the emotional payoff of the pursuit itself and the vast effort of almost finding the killer. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/03/19/taking-sides) ## The New York Times — Manohla Dargis 2 March 2007. Dargis praises Fincher's masterly, obsessive tracking of the Zodiac case and the men pursuing the killer through meticulous detail and intellectual puzzles. She singles out the film's focus on consciousness, conscience, and the experience of dawning awareness over typical thriller thrills. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/arts/02iht-flik3.4774496.html) ## Eye for Film — Jennie Kermode 14 May 2007. The critic finds the film an elegant study of obsession and society's response to terrorism rather than a conventional thriller. She praises its meticulous craftsmanship, character work, and smart commentary on media and fear. [Read the review](https://eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/zodiac-film-review-by-jennie-kermode) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/zodiac.md