This Is The Real Thing

Rating: 10/10 (13 January 2008)

Over the course of the last 12 years I have, despite much resistance, become a David Fincher fan. My faith in him wavered in 2002 when he directed Koepp's less than stellar "Panic Room". In the five year gap following the release of that film I came to believe that I'd lost Fincher as a reliable director and that he'd lost his career. "Zodiac" restored my faith.
This film is shot on high grade digital video and it is the only time I've ever seen video look like anything but video. Fincher's eye has transcended the boundaries of a once limiting medium. The color and motion are perfect. The word gorgeous would suffice. The three central performances are perfect as well, which is surprising because Gyllenhaal and Ruffalo really had something to prove for me. As with Brad Pitt in "Se7en", Fincher has given credibility to another couple of heartthrobs. The supporting cast (which includes the under-appreciated Elias Koteas) is awesome as well.
Everything worked and this is proved by the fact that it kept me in my theater seat all 157 minutes in spite my bladder being stretched ever larger by an extra large coke. True crime is a popular subject for film and the story of the zodiac killer of the 1970s was made 3 other times within 2 years of this movie. Trailing behind failures like "Hollywoodland" and De Palma's "The Black Dahlia", "Zodiac" arrived at an opportune time. All these films concerned real life crimes. This is the only success among them, bladder or no bladder.
"Zodiac" is neither a dramatization or a documentary, it is a movie. The focus, apart from the actual murders played as they happened, is confined to three men (Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo) who were stricken with the obsession to stop the zodiac's reign of terror. This theme was also present in "The Black Dahlia", but as an over-dramatized b-movie. At the risk of sounding pretentious, I'll also say that it's a movie that takes an intelligent and honest look at how we react to and deal with mass murderers.
The fact that nobody knows who this killer is and never will know for certain presents an interesting problem dramatically. Perhaps accidentally, the solution is like a "Citizen Kane" in which we never meet Charles Foster Kane. As Rosebud was a ruse in that film, the killers identity proves equally to be a ruse because the journey is more important. This is the story of people in the wake of a madman.
Naturally more focus goes to Gyllenhaal's Graysmith since this is the character of the book's author. His personal story of raising a child and having a girlfriend all being pushed to the back burner by his obsession might seem trivial at first, but it is played very well here. Fincher's good sense for drama and the proportion thereof is key here. Downey Jr. chews his scenes very successfully as a quirked, self centered reporter who perhaps best embodies the frustration at a mystery with no answer. Ruffalo is the cop who still believes in justice and is worn on by the publicity phenomenon that serial killers create (highlighted by a scenes where he sits down to watch "Dirty Harry" only to find it mirrors the case he's stumped on). All their characters feel fresh again because the viewer gets wrapped up in the story and forgets they're watching a movie.
My least favorite words to find in the promotion of any movie "Based on a true story" followed closely by "Inspired by actual events". With a lot of films this device (and it's often no more than a device) is a crutch, an excuse to tell an uninteresting story badly and have all its failings of script etc. by ignored by an audience who keep telling themselves that what they're watching is in some way "real". This pretty much puts me off true stories, including true crime stories. "Zodiac" is one hell of an exception.