A true crime masterpiece with impeccable attention to detail

Rating: 9/10 (7 September 2014)

Director, David Fincher who's dark visionary perspective and methodical storytelling brought us the chilling and gritty serial killer spin-off, "Se7en". This time, Fincher's brilliance shines through emphatically with this horrifyingly realistic adaptation of newspaper cartoonist's 1986 true crime novel, "Zodiac" that investigated Northern California serial murders during 60's and 70's that remain unsolved to this day. Based on the actual case files and studies, such careful and tedious research went into this underrated film, that every frame is a duplication of the story as it actually happened as far as the facts are concerned according to the author and police reports.
The story begins in the Northern California area as an unidentified killer shoots and stabs young residents at random and then continues to taunt law enforcement and the public by sending coded messages to the San Fransisco Chronicle. A young, introverted cartoonist, Robert Graysmith, finely portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal becomes obsessed with cracking the codes and the identity of the killer by pursuing detectives, primarily chief investigator David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo). Police and journalists continue to be puzzled and exasperated as the "Zodiac" killer is able to conceal his identity through various means including his handwriting and physical appearance while blending in undetected and lapsing for sometimes years at a time.
This film is so well thought out by Fincher, writer, James Vanderbilt and their producers, that they sculpted the development of the film heavily from interviews with the original San Fransisco bay area detectives, officials and actual surviving victims. Fincher was so obsessed with the details everything down to the landscapes of the murder locations and the clothes that the victims were wearing at the time of the incidents. The cast is in top shape, including Gyllenhaal, Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, Elias Koteas John Carroll Lynch as the prime suspect and Robert Downey Jr. delivering his witty sarcasm as journalist, Paul Avery. This is true crime film-making at its very best with a slow pace but stark atmosphere, lively soundtrack, and suspenseful and puzzling relationships with complex and engaging characters based on real people and events. Readers of books on true crime like "Zodiac" and "Helter Skelter" will find this especially interesting, but it should play out as a thought-provoking and entertaining character study for any inquiring mind of unsolved mysteries. Definitely a two thumbs up.