Overlong But Still Involving Story of the Pursuit of the Elusive Zodiac Killer

Rating: 7/10 (5 August 2007)

Even though I was a child, I distinctly recall the news coverage of the Zodiac killer manhunt nearly forty years ago, which served as the inspiration for Clint Eastwood's epochal film, 1971's Dirty Harry. David Fincher's meticulous 2007 film, however, is not a standard action shoot-'em-up. In tone and pacing, it seems to have been inspired by Alan J. Pakula's All the President's Men (1976). Both movies take on the guise of a suspenseful, character-rich detective story that highlights the obsession that takes over the police and the press in uncovering high-profile crimes. Unlike Pakula, however, Fincher does not propel James Vanderbilt's time-spanning script (based on Robert Graysmith's 1986 book, Zodiac) as forcefully and lets the story go on far too long to be consistently compelling, especially as he is forced by facts to leave the resolution open-ended.
The story traces three main protagonists over several years - San Francisco police detective Dave Toschi and two of the staff at the San Francisco Chronicle, veteran crime beat reporter Paul Avery and young cartoonist-turned-writer Graysmith. It is ironically Graysmith who is the most tenacious in finding the murderer as the encrypted letters sent to the newspaper offices feed into his natural interest in puzzles. As one would expect from the maker of Se7en and Fight Club, Fincher does not shy away from the details of the graphic killings, but the movie is far more about the frustrating pursuit by the three men separately and together. The cat-and-mouse tension works best albeit most predictably when Toschi and his fellow law enforcement officers are involved. The journalistic pursuit is comparatively less interesting because Avery's self-destructive tendencies and Graysmith's mounting preoccupation do not measure up dramatically to the palpable idea of the killer being caught and punished by the law.
Typical of this genre, the performances for the most part are workmanlike. Playing a character that inspired not only Eastwood but Steve Mc Queen's Bullitt, Mark Ruffalo lends his familiar ramshackle persona to the sardonic character of Toschi - more like Columbo than Callahan. As the alcoholic, drug-addled Avery, Robert Downey Jr. shows an obvious affinity to his character, and he makes the most of it, even if it all feels a little too familiar. Jake Gyllenhaal grabs the most screen time and provides an effective portrait of Graysmith as he evolves from naïve and impressionable to haunted and indiscriminately desperate. Smaller roles are filled by Anthony Edwards as Toschi's upstanding partner, Chloë Sevigny as Graysmith's increasingly alienated wife, Brian Cox in a ham-fisted turn as attorney Melvin Belli, and best of all, John Carroll Lynch in a subtle performance as prime suspect Arthur Leigh Allen with only a hint of malevolence.
The marathon 156-minute running time helps create an almost mini-series feel to the whole venture, but Fincher's dark, supple film-making style compensates to a great degree. The period detail is evocative without resorting to kitsch or heavy nostalgia, for example, the primitive state of telecommunications is conveyed perfectly in a scene where the various city police departments try to coordinate the sharing of evidence. I happened upon the filming at the San Francisco Chronicle building on the way to work last year since I live just a few blocks away and was able to witness first-hand the meticulous attention to historical detail in the vehicles and the characters' wardrobe. The 2007 DVD is bereft of extras apparently in preparation for a two-disc Special Edition DVD set that will include the commentary tracks and featurettes one would have expected here.