A Serial-killer movie with no easy answers. Imagine that!

Rating: 10/10 (6 February 2008)

Re-watching this movie,I was moved to write a review. I'm not sure why I didn't the first time that I saw this,but maybe I was in such awe and disbelief of the product on the first viewing that I felt like I needed a RE-viewing to take it all in again. I'm glad I did.
Director David Fincher("Se7en","Fight Club","Panic Room",all VERY good movies IMO)may not seem to be the best choice to helm this true-story accounting of the Zodiac killings,set around the San Francisco Bay Area in the late,late 1960s and early early 1970s,but Fincher's ever-sharp eye for moody,eerie detail is perfect here! Based on the 1981 BEst-seller by SF Chroncile CArtoonist Robert Graysmith(off a script penned by James Vanderbilt),the story picks up off of the SECOND pair of murders that occurred,this time during fourth of JUly weekend 1969 and follows with great attention to detail both the police investigation of the crimes and the press' involvement in coverage,particularly the offices of the San Francicsco Examiner. The central characters sort out to be the Examiner's Crime reporter Paul Avery(Robert Downey Jr.,possessing arguably some of the best lines in the movie),SFPD inspectors David Toschi(Mark Ruffalo,hard-working and sympathetic as ever)and Bill Armstrong(Anthony Edwards,who should be working more) and,of course,Graysmith(JAke Gyllenhaal,perfecting the "likable social retard" role he's probably better known for),who proves to have a very sharp eye for solving codes,puzzles,riddles and ciphers. Over the progression of almost two-and-a-half hours of movie time,the investigation shifts focus and the details,minutiae and personalities begin to accumulate,both creating pieces to slowly(try roughly twenty-two years in sum)fit the puzzle,yet always leaving some doubts as to who,how(also how many),why and--in the beginning--when,as the eponymous killer goes from being a taunting sociopath to a desperate attention-grabber. Naturally,as the process becomes bogged in details and due process,the investigation grows colder,where it births as a media sensation as well as a police problem,until it ends up being part of a low-profile,single agenda obsession for the cartoonist Graysmith. By the end of the movie,the facts presented--and I choose to be INTENTIONALLY vague here--make this as potentially frustrating for the viewer as it was for those,police and otherwise who tried to solve it.
Editing,lighting(EXCELLENT use of color schemes to show the sort of dingy,kitchy look of the early seventies),score(by David Shire),pacing,as well as fine performances by the principles(and some lower-billed roles too,notably Chloe Sevigny as Graysmith's patience-exhausted girlfriend/wife,Dermont Mulroney as Toschi and Armstrong's superior,John Carroll Lynch as the chief suspect and Charles Fleischer as a potential "person of interest")make this movie one of the more quiet gems to pas through theaters in 2007. If I understand correctly--and I haven't COMPLETELY pored over the Oscar noms yet--this show didn't get ANY nods,which is a true head-scratcher. In the movies,just about all serial killer flicks have some sort of visceral release or denouement(heck,"Dirty HArry"for which was mostly inspired BY the actual Zodiac case,practically is made as a surrogate for the real-life case,and does just that--provides the closure!),but leave it to a detail-driven film based on a real baffler to provide something unique and well-worth the film-viewer's time and money.