Great return for Fincher; an excellent, atmospheric thriller

Rating: 8/10 (24 November 2007)

Let's get this out of the way first, this is not Fincher's best movie, but it does not matter. "Se7en" and "Fight Club" are two amazing movies that Fincher will struggle to better but that does not mean he will never make a great movie again. Zodiac is a moody, captivating thriller from start to finish. All the actors were amazing, the soundtrack was perfect and Fincher's direction is flawless.
Zodiac is based on Robert Graysmith's book about the Zodiac serial killer who murdered randomly in San Fransisco in the 1960's and 1970's. The movie follows a group of people investigating these murders. There is Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), a cartoonist for a newspaper, Inspector David (Mark Ruffalo) and his partner Inspector William (Anthony Edwards) and Paul Avery (Robert Downey, Jr.), a columnist who specializes in crime.
The movie can be split into two parts. The opening scene (which is brilliant, might I add) shows the Zodiac killing a young couple. We see a few more of his killings then the movie changes pace from this disturbing and dark murder mystery to a slower, more character driven investigation into the Zodiac.
Both these parts are equally important to the whole story, which runs at about 158 minutes, a fairly lengthy time. This unfortunately is the only negative of the movie for me, in some places it does drag a little bit which detracts from the mood which is disappointing because a few cuts could have made this a perfect movie. Because everything else is.
All the actors are really quite good, especially Gyllenhaal, who really plays a socially awkward nerd very well. The soundtrack is perfectly suited to the time when this movie was set, as are the costumes. And of course, like all of Fincher's movies, this has plenty of style.
4/5