Zodiac is a superior thriller detailing the killing spree of that plagued the San Francisco area in the late sixties and early seventies. Writer James Vanderbilt and director David Fincher have taken Robert Graysmiths book (one of the best true crime books Ive ever read) and created a mood of terror and loss within the confines of a police procedural. This is an epic movie that takes place over the course of some 25 years covering the years the Zodiac killer held a city in terror killing some 12 people over the course of a few years then delving into the lives of the people who were involved in solving the mystery of his identity often at great personal and professional loss.
Vanderbilt has put together an award worthy script telescoping a lot of information into 2 ½ hours but the film never seems overstuffed. Fincher, one of our best thriller directors, keeps a brisk pace. Both give the actors, a large cast, plenty of room to breathe and even slip in some moments of humor. Jake Gyllenhaal portrays Robert Graysmith as a naïve innocent inexplicably though inexorably becoming the chronicler of the story. Robert Downey Jr. plays a cynical crime writer who, tragically, becomes part of the story. Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards are on hand as the cops who are assigned to catch the killer, continually frustrated by the cleverness of the killer and the jurisdictional formalities that withhold crucial information from all involved. There are interesting and nuance performances from the whole cast which include Brian Cox as an unctuous attorney, Chloe Sevigny as Graysmiths concerned wife, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, Dermot Mulroney, and Philip Baker Hall as various police officers who both help and hinder the investigation.
The film really takes hold when Gyllenhaal polite but determined, eventually obsessive, Graysmith simply decides he has to know the killers identity when everyone else is ready to leave the Zodiac to history. That small time in history has so irrevocably ruined peoples lives that Graysmith just has to look into the eyes of the killer. There is a scene in the movie when Gyllenhaal and Ruffalo (who has long since been pull off the case), sitting in a diner, pull together all the evidence Gyllenhaal has gathered and slowly gets from point A to point B and points at the identity and the opportunity of a killer and explains why the Zodiac disappeared for so many years. Its as riveting a scene as the one that punctuated Oliver Stones JFK; the conspiracy theory Donald Sutherland posits to Kevin Costner.
David Fincher created a masterpiece with Seven, but that film was a clever construct, highly influential, brilliantly acted and edited, but for the most part that films success is on the surface. Zodiac succeeds because its not so much about a killer or a killers motivations but because it finds more interest in how these horrifying acts can boldly or tragically affect the lives of those who would seek out a truth that may not exist or that may not be fathomable.
**** out of ****
Vanderbilt has put together an award worthy script telescoping a lot of information into 2 ½ hours but the film never seems overstuffed. Fincher, one of our best thriller directors, keeps a brisk pace. Both give the actors, a large cast, plenty of room to breathe and even slip in some moments of humor. Jake Gyllenhaal portrays Robert Graysmith as a naïve innocent inexplicably though inexorably becoming the chronicler of the story. Robert Downey Jr. plays a cynical crime writer who, tragically, becomes part of the story. Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards are on hand as the cops who are assigned to catch the killer, continually frustrated by the cleverness of the killer and the jurisdictional formalities that withhold crucial information from all involved. There are interesting and nuance performances from the whole cast which include Brian Cox as an unctuous attorney, Chloe Sevigny as Graysmiths concerned wife, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, Dermot Mulroney, and Philip Baker Hall as various police officers who both help and hinder the investigation.
The film really takes hold when Gyllenhaal polite but determined, eventually obsessive, Graysmith simply decides he has to know the killers identity when everyone else is ready to leave the Zodiac to history. That small time in history has so irrevocably ruined peoples lives that Graysmith just has to look into the eyes of the killer. There is a scene in the movie when Gyllenhaal and Ruffalo (who has long since been pull off the case), sitting in a diner, pull together all the evidence Gyllenhaal has gathered and slowly gets from point A to point B and points at the identity and the opportunity of a killer and explains why the Zodiac disappeared for so many years. Its as riveting a scene as the one that punctuated Oliver Stones JFK; the conspiracy theory Donald Sutherland posits to Kevin Costner.
David Fincher created a masterpiece with Seven, but that film was a clever construct, highly influential, brilliantly acted and edited, but for the most part that films success is on the surface. Zodiac succeeds because its not so much about a killer or a killers motivations but because it finds more interest in how these horrifying acts can boldly or tragically affect the lives of those who would seek out a truth that may not exist or that may not be fathomable.
**** out of ****
"My revenge has spread over centuries, and has just begun!"
