Fincher's best since Se7en.

Rating: 8/10 (9 January 2008)

Personally, I find David Fincher to be an overrated director who aims his films at every teenage boy trying to look totally awesome because he can quote Fight Club, but I all admit that I'm a pretty big fan of his wonderful thriller, Se7en. Since he created that unnerving, psychological journey in 1995 all I've seen from him has been one mediocre formulaic thriller after the other with the complete disgrace that was Fight Club in the middle. Zodiac is a much more adult film for Fincher, and it's easily his best since Se7en and the second entry to his resume that I can honestly say I admire. The story of the infamous serial killer has always been one of great interest to me; I first discovered it years ago and read Robert Graysmith's book that the film is based on a few years ago. Fincher does this disturbing, extremely mysterious story justice by creating an adult thriller that covers every big element of the still-open investigation that has spanned decades.
In order to capture everything without making a ten hour production, he was forced to jump across extremely different amounts of time (from as little as ten hours to as long as four years). Surprisingly, he does this with great skill and the film never manages to drag or distract due to this gaps in time. It's a taut, unnerving tale that thoroughly studies the mystery of the Zodiac killer and shows the effect that this case takes on three very different men. A charismatic, witty reporter who eventually gets threats on his life (Robert Downey Jr.), a young cartoonist who takes the investigation under his wing once everyone else has all but given up (Jake Gyllenhaal) and the head detective who is destroyed by the case and even gets accused of forging letters from the Zodiac in order to boost his own fame (Mark Ruffalo). All three performances are excellent, but Downey and Ruffalo really amazed me. They are two of my favorite actors and they still manage to catch me off guard by how outstanding their portrayals are.