Chilling Account Of America's Ultimate Serial Killer/Stalker...And The Men Who Stalked HIM...

Rating: 9/10 (5 December 2008)

JULY 4th, 1969The late Sixties kicked off a time of tremendous social upheaval and cultural change, not to mention the political turmoil being fueled by our continuing involvement in Vietnam. For the most part, though, in the idyllic town of Vallejo, California, the people seemed mostly untouched by all the chaos swirling around in the rest of the country.
Until this night.
On a deserted lover's lane, a young couple is brutally gunned down, shot multiple times by an unknown assailant. The male half of the couple somehow manages to survive the ordeal. His girlfriend is not so fortunate.
And that's how the story of ZODIAC begins.
Having seen an earlier, low-budget version of the story that clocked in at just under ninety minutes, I couldn't figure out how in the hell director David Fincher was going to hold my attention for TWO AND A HALF HOURS. Without a new and different way of telling the story, I pretty much anticipated ditching this one early, regardless of who was in it. And this rendition brings out the big guns: Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Chloe Sevigny, Elias Koteas, Brian Cox, Philip Baker Hallthe list is impressive.
Well, as it turns out, so is the movie. Told with that matter-of-factness that we've come to expect and enjoy from police procedurals like CSI and LAW AND ORDER on the small screen, ZODIAC goes a whole lot deeper than those shows, to give us better insight into both the kind of man who would commit such ghastly, murderous acts, and more importantly, the kind of men obsessed enough to want to catch him at literally any cost.
Based on the book by author Robert Graysmith, it's Gyllenhaal who actually plays him in the movie; a squeaky-clean editorial cartoonist working for the San Francisco 'Chronicle' in 1969 when the story breaks. He's like a kid with his nose pressed to the window of a neighborhood bar, where all the grown-ups go; he wants to be as important and respected and hip as the guys who write the "big" stories, but he can never gain the access to that world he craves.
That's only until he meets crime reporter Paul Avery (Downey Jr.), who is as perplexed and intrigued by the Zodiac Killer's taunting letters and weird, cryptic ciphers which he demands the local papers publish to avoid more deaths on the streets. He's not quite as taken with the socially inept and naïve Graysmithuntil he finds out that Robert is a puzzle aficionado whose infatuation with them gives him the aptitude to help crack Zodiac's messagesand maybe provide some badly needed insight into the killer himself.
Unwittingly intertwined with the destinies of the two newspaper flacks is the investigating officer, Inspector David Toschi (Ruffalo) and his partner, William Armstrong (ER's Anthony Edwards.) The animal-cracker addicted cop attacks the case much like an animal  a bloodhound  as he sniffs out every clue obsessively, probing, questioning, eventually winding up living, breathing and sleeping the case like someone who lost a family member to it.
I can't recall the last time I saw a crime drama that so widely covers all angles of a true event  maybe Richard Brooks' masterpiece IN COLD BLOOD, the granddaddy of true crime thrillers, or Richard Fleischer's riveting THE BOSTON STRANGLER. Yes, the required reenactments of the crimes themselves are played out here, complete with the kind of gory detail that defies you to watch and dares you to look away. But like those other two movies, it makes the story of how the case energizes, engulfs and even destroys the lives of the men driven to find the answers to solve it, where ZODIAC distinguishes itself from any other film of its kind.
It's also a great look at the low-tech procedures that the police were limited to compared to today - how sometimes, jurisdictional problems and bureaucratic red-tape (not to mention jealously guarded turf and other issues) sometimes prevented investigators from getting out of each other's way (or their own) long enough to do an effective job.
Everyone here is in top form, from the principals right down to the cameos that only amount to a few minutes of time on-screen. But where Fincher really shines is in the scenes that will stand out in your mind forever when you think about the case or this movie. For me, one scene in the third act, which features a gripping performance by Charles Fleischer (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT), is a chilling, nerve-jangling sequence that captures the creepy essence of the entire film. I won't say too much about it here, but I can guarantee that you'll be on the edge of the couch when you see it.
Not really a horror film (but definitely not a horrible one), ZODIAC enriches David Fincher's past body of work, and makes a great companion piece to his other classic crime thriller, SE7EN.