How to make a suspenseful movie without action, violence and profanity

Rating: 9/10 (1 June 2007)

He is back. The Grandmaster of Angst delivers a dialog driven movie. And it's 158 minutes long. How can this work ?
When someone like David Fincher brings out a new movie, it's crystal clear that I visit the cinema on the first night it shows in Germany. I love "The Game" and "Fight Club" as much as I shudder every time I think of "Se7en" (having the most vicious and psychopathic antagonist ever). So, yes, I am a Fincher fan.
This movie, however, differs a lot from his earlier works. It is not so much "in your face", but more subtle and smooth. While there are scenes that frighten you (mainly towards the end of it) and scenes that disturb you (mainly at the beginning), the most part of it is dialog. Pure Dialogue, pure investigation. A rather slow speed, no action scenes, only a bit of brutality (and showed in a way, that the gore hounds don't get too much out of it).
But somehow you aren't bored. The absurdity of the case unfolding in front of you, a brilliant script and very good acting by the main characters just keep you sucked in to the movie. It is a unique viewing, and thinking of movies that might be similar, only "All the President's Men" comes to my mind. Although, having watched that one lately, I have to say that Zodiac is a lot better.
There are just so many layers to movie that it is hard to peel them off.
On the first layer is the classic "Who is the murder ?"
On the next layer is a harsh criticism of 2 of the three branches of the state, as well as the press as the so called fourth power. While the Executive obstructs Justice with it's haggle over competencies, the legislative situation makes it hard for the police to act and nail down the best suspect they ever come across. The fourth power, the Press, only tries to raise their circulation and happily follows the orders of the mass murder, investigates false links and publishes them, thus leading hundreds of false accusations and suspects that overburden the authorities and lead to right leads being drowned in a sea of false leads.
And on just another next layer is Obsession. The obsession of the murderer, who wants to have slaves in his afterlife and thus kills people. The alcoholic and substance abusing journalist. And the caricaturist that becomes obsessed with the whole Zodiac case and wants to embrace and solve it, losing his family and job due to it. And on the other hand the policemen that fight against this obsession and don't want to be sucked in by the case and don't want their lives to be destroyed.
All in all a brilliant movie, a must see, and probably a must-see-more-than-once.
9 out of 10, only because there was a point after about 120 or 125 minutes where I thought: Oh my, another act, it is time to come to an end. Just shortly. 5 seconds. Really.