Paced, suspenseful, gripping - the first real must-see of 2007!

Rating: 10/10 (27 May 2007)

It is about a serial killer. And it is directed by David Fincher. Se7en 2? Absolutely not. Fincher has never repeated himself, and there is no way he will start now. Se7en was a terrifying, unflinching thriller that offered no hope or comfort; Zodiac is equally bleak, but at the same time unlike any other serial killer movie made before.
For the first time, Fincher handles a true story, and a pretty dark one for that matter: with five confirmed murders and another thirty-two he claimed responsibility for, the Zodiac was the American version of Jack the Ripper. Like the English psychopath, Zodiac was never captured (the police interrogated several suspects, with no results), and the two also shared a fascination for sending letters to the authorities, making fun of people's foolish attempts to uncover their identities. It is this aspect that interests the director: the killer's relationship with law enforcement and media. There is no room for the actual murderer or his grand plan (not that he has one), like in Se7en; Zodiac is a tale of obsession, of how one man indelibly affected four people who spent most of their lives trying to solve one of the USA's greatest mysteries.
The film begins on the fourth of July, 1969: a young couple making out in a car is brutally attacked by an unknown assailant. The girl dies, the boy lives and leaves San Francisco, and the killer sends a letter to the S.F. Chronicle, taking credit for the crime and inviting the reporters to identify with a cypher he has enclosed to the message. Chronicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) immediately asserts the cypher is bogus, and is indeed proved right, but at the same time he develops an unusual interest for the Zodiac, and joins the booze-addicted Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr., who gives the film's most affecting, painfully real performance) on a quest to solve the puzzle. As they keep seeking the truth, their paths cross with those of David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo, the other standout in a mesmerizing ensemble) and Bill Armstrong (Anthony Edwards, in his first relevant role since he left E.R.), two SFPD detectives whose only thought is to find the elusive psycho and lock him up forever.
The case goes on for several years (the final scene's caption reads "1991"), and in order to accurately depict those years Fincher didn't just use Graysmith's books Zodiac and Zodiac Unmasked as basis for the screenplay, he also reread old files and even talked to anyone who was personally involved in the events (which is why not all the murders are shown on screen: the director omitted those for which he could not find a surviving victim or witness), which explains why it took so long to complete the film (Fincher's last effort, Panic Room, was released in 2002). This attention to detail pays off, as we are offered as complete a recollection as there can be of the facts, spread over 160 minutes that never feel stretched or boring: the story hooks the viewer right from the beginning and never lets go, its content being too unsettling and important to be ignored. Unlike From Hell, which upset a lot of people for its theories regarding the Ripper's real name and motive, Fincher does not try to make the audience believe anything, but simply tells what has been verified, although it is obvious he shares the characters'feelings towards the prime suspect (Arthur Leigh Allen, played with nerve-cracking conviction by John Carroll Lynch). He does not even show off with his usual camera trickery (the only exception being a scene where the accelerated construction of the Transamerica building indicates that a year has passed), not because, as some might claim, he has "matured", but because he felt that was right for the kind of story he is telling. Zodiac is more similar to All The President's Men than Se7en, and like Alan J. Pakula's masterpiece it is all about time, place and character, not action or blood.
At one point, Paul Avery says: "He offed a few citizens, wrote a few notes and faded into a footnote". Therein lies the movie's true nature: it is not interested in telling the story of a killer, partly because this particular criminal has already been used by Hollywood (Dirty Harry's Scorpio was based on the Zodiac), but that of a group of ordinary people so desperate to give a face to the name that haunted them they spent decades working on a case they knew from the start would not be solved.
Fincher considers his sixth film "the definitive serial killer film". He has got a point: by giving no real answers or glimpses of optimism he sets Zodiac apart from traditional thrillers, which will all seem like fairy tales in comparison. The real thing is much more complex and painful, but also, in the end, far more compelling than the usual mainstream product. An astonishing achievement, and the year's first truly unmissable movie.
9,5/10