Even Better than Expected

Rating: 9/10 (3 March 2007)

Robert Graysmith (Gyllenhaal) was just a cartoonist. Paul Avery (Downey, Jr.) was just a reporter. David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) was just a police inspector. They did their jobs, their day-to-day lives without many problems. They all lived in their own worlds, their secure worlds, and did not have much to object about. Avery enjoyed drinks at the bar with his bosses and coworkers while sometimes covering the news (or throwing his own spin on it). Toschi solved the crimes of San Fransisco and enjoyed his insatiable craving for animal crackers. Graysmith went about invisible at the San Fransisco Chronicle, ignored by the "real" employees because of his status as just a cartoonist. All that began to change, however, in the Summer of 1969 when two young lovers were brutally shot in Vallejo by a man who would soon coin himself as the 'Zodiac.' The obsession of catching the murderer, or the disgust caused by his crimes, would drive the cop, the simple reporter, and the invisible cartoonist down a path that few would want to travel for nearly 22 years.
David Fincher, of Fight Club and Se7en fame, always manages to land the perfect story to use as his next great thriller. Alongside of that, he gets the opportunity to work with some of the finest actors in our generation, many of whom have either won an Oscar, or have been nominated. Zodiac is no different. Fincher starts the story right off the bat with the murder and attempted murder of the Zodiac's first two victims, David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16. For the next 2 and a half hours, it is a spiraling ride down into the world of murder, obsession, and the ugly side of the world that people seem to shy away from.
Fincher is in fine form, as usual, mixing his unique ability to capture the smallest of emotions of his actors, to choreographing some of the coolest shots using both CGI and real life images. Much like the great opening scene in Fight Club, Fincher blends the use of his camera and the power of a computer to make some very compelling and awesome shots, for example the quick ten second shot of the entire construction of the Transamerica Tower. But do not think that this is the only high point of Zodiac.
Gyllenhaal, Downey, Jr, and Ruffalo (or "The Three" as I will refer to them) jumped so deep into their roles that it was hard to separate the actors from the people they were portraying, most notably Mark Ruffalo. A local reviewer here in Arizona called him a chameleon, being able to literally become the character, while most actors simply portray the character. This is the best way to describe Ruffalo, who has played so many different characters in the past 4 years it is hard to believe he can do such a great job. For instance, he played the quirky yet nerdy Stan in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the bad ass yet incredibly Hispanic looking Detective Fanning in Collateral (who I did not realize was in fact Ruffalo until I saw the end credits), and a few typical male characters in romantic comedies. That is what is so great about Ruffalo. He is the character he is portraying.
Robert Downey, Jr., is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors. It seems to me that after he got over his drug problems and started taking on more interesting roles, his career became hotter than ever before. Downey has been in some of my favorite movies in the past seven years (Wonder Boys, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Good Night, and Good Luck, and A Scanner Darkly). His style is very subtle and dry, yet he is such an engaging presence on the screen and his wit is so sharp that I honestly would watch any movie with Robert Downey, Jr., in it and probably enjoy it. His portrayal of the drug/alcohol addicted Paul Avery would have been funny if you did not feel so bad for the guy after he looses his job.
And we cannot forget Jake Gyllenhaal! Gyllenhaal has a different style completely different than the others. Jake has this natural innocence that caught my attention when I first saw him in October Sky and has used that innocence to make the audience feel more connected with whatever character he was playing, even the infamous Donnie Darko. With his boyish face and good looks, he can pull of playing just about any type of character and it was really refreshing to see him change so much over the course of the film. In the beginning, he was the quiet book worm who kept to himself. By the end of the film, he was so obsessed with the idea of just finding out who Zodiac was (not necessarily catching him, just solving the ultimate puzzle) that he had neglected everything and everyone in his life to find all the answers to write his book.
All-in-all, Zodiac is a fantastic film. So far, it is one of the best so far of this year, and I think it will be hard pressed to be forgotten. In what could have easily been a boring adaptation turned into an incredibly tense yet sometimes funny biography of all the people who were so affected by this madman, and had never even met him. We all know the ending basically. The Zodiac Killer was never caught. Some might look at this and wonder what the point of seeing the movie is then, but you have to realize that the purpose behind Zodiac is not purely a detective story where we find out who the killer is and how he did it (like C.S.I. or Law & Order), but it also a very engaging character study about how, like the tag line says, 'there's more than one way to lose your life to a killer.'