Memories of Murder - Squirrels in the Fridge

Rating: 7/10 (22 May 2007)

Brave attempt - great opening sequence - to depict the fruitless search for an apparent serial killer, detailing the frustration and loose ends faced by the policemen leading the case and the two very different men, from a city newspaper who also pursue the case; a dogged cartoonist who nobody takes seriously at first, the other a maverick journalist whose originality takes him tantalizingly close to finding the killer before he succumbs to alcoholism.
Relentlessly downbeat, I think the film does suffer occasionally from too much story in the sense so that you feel detached from the drama of the investigation with information given rather than revealed as part of the journey. The final act does inject more urgency as Graysmith (Gyllenhaal) assumes the search.
The film shows that murder investigations are often hampered by simple errors, not by an evil warped genius (Hannibal Lector). For instance, the police interrogate the main suspect but this possibly allowed him time to dispose of any incriminating evidence before a search of his home - as Toschi & Graysmith later surmise.
It also deserves plaudits for how the story changes the focus from one main character to another, from Toschi (Ruffalo) in the second Act to Graysmith's pursuit of the truth in the final Act.
It also captures a particular period well as well as highlighting how the case did not benefit from police bureaucracy (each police dept possesses evidence that it's reluctant to pass on to the other). With technical developments such as use of computer databases as well as scientific ones such as DNA, modern policemen are better equipped to solve such bizarre, challenging cases as the Zodiac.
It would certainly reward a second viewing but it's interesting how Fincher has been regarded as making a 'serial killer' film very much against type (sensationalist 'Silence of the Lambs') and I can't help thinking he was influenced by 'Memories of Murder' a terrific Korean film based on another unsolved true-life series of murders but which is a much more dramatic film, varying in tone from the black to the depressing as well as about two different approaches to solving crime.