Zodiac

A work friend lent me this movie, which is a long one at roughly two and a half hours. The first hour is a little slow, but the rest of it is gripping stuff, all the more so because it's factually based. I don't know enough to say how much of it was fiction and how much of it was real. Robert Downey, Jr. does his usual good job (and I think is the main reason my friend bought the movie), but he's not really the main character.

The film also provides an interesting insight into our justice system. By the end, it seems clear who Zodiac is, and yet the evidence wouldn't hold up in a courtroom and everybody knew it. Innocent until proven guilty is a good and necessary concept, but situations like this one are enough to make you doubt it, at least for a little while. Almost all of the evidence pointing to a particular person is circumstantial, and yet when there is so much of that circumstantial evidence, it's hard to doubt that it points to the right person.

Definitely recommended, especially the factual basis appeals to you.