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.
