Watching the final 45 minutes or so of Zodiac again last night I finally figured out what the film is, this generations Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Both films are technically marvelous and are so obsessed with details that that they come into the forefront, all the while there is another story sneaking up in the background.
It isn't until Richard Dreyfuss really goes off the deep end in Close Encounters, building Devil's Tower in the mashed potatoes that the human story picks up steam. Everything before that is all mystery and techno mumbo jumbo. With that movie, we are getting a sort of parallel story with Melinda Dillon's child being upducted but the main focus is on Dreyfuss.
With Zodiac, we are given enormous amounts of detail about the killings and the case and the newspaper that the letters were sent to in the first hour and a half. It is fascinating but slowly the picture begins to change. This becomes the story of one man wanting to know the truth. Blocking everything else in his life out, the same way Dreyfuss did.
Of course, the finales and the subject matter couldn't be further apart but it's not about that. It's about the feeling of momentum you get watching these films. Always moving forward, checking every fact, never stopping for anything else.
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