A masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (6 March 2007)

Zodiac is a masterpiece and I believe it is David Fincher's most accomplished film ever. I have never been fully enamored of either Seven or The Game. Fight Club was a feeble and ultimately mind-numbing shadow of a great book. Panic Room was an enjoyable technical exercise and not much more. With Zodiac I believe David Fincher has vaulted himself to the front rank of American filmmakers. The film is a richly textured and densely layered meditation on crime, celebrity, obsession and media manipulation. To call Zodiac a serial killer movie is to do it a huge disservice. This film is the work of a master filmmaker at the peak of his powers.
I was delighted to discover a film where intelligent characters converse with each other in a thoughtful manner. This film requires and rewards attention. It is a rebuke to the obnoxious and annoying MTV style which will pollute theaters yet again on Friday when 300 comes out. The film looks great and is shot with a great deal of care and attention to detail. However, David Fincher's films always look great and this is not the area where this film really shines. This film really shines in it's understated, realistic and yet wholly entertaining dialog and characterization. Fincher has made the bold choice to take the time to create credible characters and to actually give those characters something to say. This is a film where how a character says something means just as much as what he or she says. Most films assign one trait to a character and then have that person behave according to that trait. The characters in Zodiac are complex three dimensional people. Fincher does not pander to the audience in any way. He does not ask you to even like anyone on screen, he just wants you to recognize their humanity.
For a movie that is intensely dark and creepy it is amazing how funny Zodiac is. I actually laughed out loud during several points in the film. I never laughed once during Fight Club and that was a movie that seemed to be constantly trying to elbow you in the ribs. The humor is allowed to grow organically out of the characters and situations. Fincher has employed a consistently light touch for such heavy material. Extreme and pressured circumstances, like the ones these characters find themselves in, always breed dark humor. Fincher allows for this humor to come out and far from weakening the story it actually strengthens the tone of the film. For once Fincher allows his technique to serve the performances and the story he is trying to tell and not the other way around.
The film avoids the nihilistic sensationalism of Seven by not allowing the audience to identify with the killer or get off in any way on his crimes. The murder scenes are swift, brutal and devoid of any sexy thrill. This is murder as ugly and heinous as the actual act. The "serial killer as rock star" idea is not indulged. This killer is a sad, pathetic and twisted individual with a disgusting pathology. This film is completely removed from ridiculous movies like Hannibal and Red Dragon, where the filmmakers seem to encourage the audience to identify with a psychopath.
The individual characters come to pursue the Zodiac killer for many different reasons. Fincher, wisely I think, does not spend a whole lot of time explaining the psychological reasons that lead each character to become obsessed with the case. Again he gives the audience enough credit to trust them to observe and make up their own minds as to why these characters do what they do. Audiences have become lazy and very passive in their viewing habits. They expect everything to be explained to them and all of the work to be done for them. Viewing a work of art cannot be a passive experience. You cannot watch a film like Zodiac passively. The obsessive attention that Fincher lavishes on the production must also be employed when watching it. If you do not pay close attention you will miss important details that will ultimately make the film a much richer experience for you.
Fincher has become a great actor's director. All of the actors in the film exhibit a joy of performance that only comes from working with a director who is willing to push them to do their best work. Fincher obviously expects nothing less than excellence. This excellence is very much in evidence in the many pitch perfect performances in the film. Special kudos should go to Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo for their intelligent and subtle work.
It is unfortunate that Zodiac seems to be fairing so poorly at the box office. Perhaps Fincher's fan base was scared off when they realized that the film was not going to be Seven 2. It would be a shame if Fincher turned away from the fascinating and thoughtful direction he seems to be going in. I wish there were more filmmaker's that had the guts to try and make big budget pictures with intelligence and care that are actually about something other than a marketing campaign. Zodiac is such a film. It is a movie that is thrillingly open and alive to the fantastic possibilities of narrative cinema.