A Killer Good Film

Rating: 8/10 (3 October 2010)

The crime thriller Zodiac is directed by David Fincher and stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr. The film takes place in San Francisco in the 70s for the most part.
The film starts off with a brutal murder scene of a young married woman and what looks like a teenage boy by a man that we are not able to see. The man then calls in the murder to the police describing how he did it, but the young teenage boy was left alive. Then at the San Francisco Chronicle, and other locations a coded message was sent from the killer stating how if his letter was not published he would kill more people. After some other similar messages the killer starts to identify himself as Zodiac. Robert Graysmith (Gyllenhaal) is a cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle and becomes obsessed with the Zodiac and tries to discover the true identity of the Zodiac along with the police.
The screenplay for this film by James Vanderbilt is quite intriguing. I love the way it chronicles the events of the Zodiac murders throughout the 70s and also the intensity of the film. At some points it is a violent murder scene at others it is characters telling little jokes to each other. All of the characters seemed very realistic, I cannot even think of any sort of stock character in the film at all. The film is quite long but the writing keeps it interesting the whole way through.
David Fincher's direction is great as always. I think the scenes he shines the most in are the murder scenes. He really knows how to build up the suspense to the murder that the audience knows is going to happen. The two best violent scenes are the ones with the couple in the park and the woman and her baby on the highway. Another fantastic scene was when Zodiac calls up Melvin Belli. The heavy breathing and his scream just built up the creepiness of his character to a new level. Fincher gets great performances from all his leads as well for the most part. Compared to his past films I would say this is not as good as Se7en or Fight Club but it is a much smarter film.
The acting in this film was good not great. Gyllenhaal was Robert Graysmith and I would have to say he gave the best performance of the film being very likable and yet I understand how he is flawed by his obsession of the Zodiac. It is not as good as many of his past performances like his in Brokeback Mountain or even really Donnie Darko but it was still a fine performance. Mark Ruffalo gives my favorite performance of his to date in this film. Now personally I do not think Ruffalo is the greatest actor in the world but he is always relatable and the average guy which he is also in this film. Robert Downey Jr.'s performance I thought was pretty weak as Paul Avery. It is basically him just spewing witty dialogue for the whole film and I never really care for his character. Maybe you are supposed to dislike his character but I really did not feel anything for him at all. The rest of the supporting cast gave solid performances, especially those involved in violent scenes.
Overall I give this film an 8/10. I would recommend it to anyone who likes dark and historical films.