Zodiac Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)February 28th, 2007
ZODIAC
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2007 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2
Rarely has a director switched styles so effectively than David Fincher does in ZODIAC. The director of such terrific films as SE7EN, FIGHT CLUB and PANIC ROOM abandons his usual preference for gore, fast pacing, high action and in-your-face films. In its place, Fincher crafts an exquisitely mesmerizing piece of true crime with a methodically paced and fascinatingly cerebral piece of work that had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Normally critical of films that take more than two hours to tell their tale, I would not want one minute severed from this film's long but always engrossing 158 minutes.
Back in 1969 in the San Francisco Bay Area, a serial killer who went by the moniker of the Zodiac started a reign of terror on the local citizens. Later in the film, we learn the killer's "first" killing wasn't actually his start, but most people mark 1969 as the time the fear began. I was a grad student at Berkeley and can well remember the effect his threats and actions had on the community. What I don't remember are all of the fascinating details of the investigation, which went on for decades.
The producers assembled a great cast for the movie. Sometimes, when too many known actors are in a film, their presence can detract from the movie's overall enjoyment, but not this time. Instead, what they bring is the ability to significantly raise the level of acting ability of the large cast.
With so many excellent actors in the production it is hard to know where to start. And with a case this complicated and well known, it's hard to decide how much to say about the details of the plot.
At the San Francisco Chronicle, where the Zodiac sent many of his coded and non-coded letters, the two main investigative reporters are played by Robert Downey Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal. In a remarkably reserved performance, Downey plays a seriously troubled guy, a reporter named Paul Avery. Avery drank like a fish, snorted coke and looked like an old Beatnik. The killer formed a person relationship with Avery by writing him letters.
In contrast, Gyllenhaal's character, Robert Graysmith, was "just" a cartoonist at the paper. Although it wasn't his job, Graysmith keeps hanging around Avery and the case. Eventually Graysmith becomes so obsessed with it that he quits his job and turns his apartment into a dumping ground for every scrap of evidence he can find, which is all too much for his increasingly estranged wife (Chloë Sevigny).
Four different police departments, not sharing much information with each other, investigated the case until all of the detectives eventually just gave up in frustration. Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards play two of the San Francisco detectives who put the most effort into finding the killer, who just kept killing and writing taunting letters as he was doing so. Elias Koteas and Donal Logue play policemen on the case from other cities. The problems in the investigation are best seen in a scene in which the SF police department asks the other departments to fax them copies of key pieces of evident. None of the other departments own fax machines, so the solution isn't for someone to drive an hour or so but to use the post office to send the information back and forth. It's not surprising then that key facts were never put together and that those that were were not done in a timely fashion.
Always lucid, the film makes but one mistake. The movie ends with a detailed textual description of the resolution of several key aspects of the case. It does this with type that is just a little too small. I could read it, but it tested the limits of my eyesight.
Don't even think about going to the bathroom or the concession stand during this motion picture. You are not going to want to miss even a second of it.
ZODIAC runs 2:38. It is rated R for "some strong killings, language, drug material and brief sexual images" and would be acceptable for teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, March 2, 2007. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
