A Fascinating, Disturbing Look into the Men Who Lost Their Lives Looking for the Zodiac

Rating: 8/10 (25 October 2013)

NOTE: this a review of the director's cut, not the theatrical cut
Zodiac is an interesting film. It's about the infamous real-life, San Francisco serial killer, the Zodiac. The film goes through his murders and investigations in detail from 1969 to 1991. But instead of diverting from fact and making the story more "cinematic", they keep it very faithful to what happened in real-life, making this a very plot-driven movie. But does it work? Let's find out!
First of all, I'm gonna talk about the storytelling in the film. The film has a LOT of plot as it covers an entire murder investigation from 1969 to 1991 and it goes through very quickly. It starts off quickly with the murder of two teenagers in a car and from then on, it never slows down and it actually works quite well like this. Often, movies are long because of bad, unnecessarily slow pacing but here, it's appropriate because this IS a very long story. However, it does make the film somewhat hard to sit through because of how long it is. By the last 40 minutes or so, you'll be checking your watch and yawning a bit so this film certainly isn't a light, breezy watch.
The film also has a dark, chilling atmosphere to it and the cinematography, like all of David Fincher's productions, is very dark and stylized. This was actually pretty surprising for me since this is a true story, I expected them to use as realistic cinematography as possible but instead, they went for a slicker, more stylish direction which is actually quite a positive because to me, realistic cinematography is boring.
The film is also very disturbing as it features realistic, brutal murders that isn't the least bit glamorized. The murders here are raw and brutal, not the fun, over-the-top violence you see in a Friday the 13th flick. But not only is the violence disturbing, but also the story. It features these obsessed, workaholic men who do very little beyond trying to find the Zodiac. When you think about it, this film isn't really about the Zodiac. It's about the men looking for the Zodiac. It's about how these men lost their lives looking for something they never found. It's a sad story about how sometimes your job, or interest can become an obsession that will ruin your life. Towards the end of the film, our protagonist, Robert, becomes so obsessed with finding the Zodiac to the point where he starts abandoning his family and getting creepy phone calls from an anonymous caller. It's a very thought- provoking statement about jobs and interests and it's beautifully expressed by Fincher's direction.
The cast here is perfect. Jake Gyllenhaal is the everyman in this story. He's a cartoonist who finds the Zodiac letters in his workplace and gradually becomes more and more obsessed with him and we believe it. Mark Ruffalo is a detective who's been assigned to find the Zodiac. He plays it very soft-spoken and polite but throughout the story, we see him get more and more frustrated with the way things are going on and Ruffalo sells all these emotions really well. Robert Downey Jr. is playing... well, Robert Downey, Jr. But you know what, he's GREAT at playing Robert Downey Jr. so no complaints here. Everyone else was great too but these were definitely the "big boys".
Overall, it's a fascinating, disturbing look into the lives of men who lost their lives looking for a serial killer. 8/10.