A top-notch movie, but you'll have to know what to expect

Rating: Null/10 (22 June 2007)

I like this movie very much, partly because I know what I should expect. But it may disappoint some who are looking for the standard serial-killer-whodunit-thriller, the kind that is calculated to give you a scare every so many minutes, a cliff-hanging climax with the hero or heroine narrowly escaping death, and a revelation of the murderer who is least suspected. No, none of those.
This is a true story which, although happening a few decades back, remains an open case even today. This is a police procedural of sorts....of sorts because although we see plenty of police work, the key character that pursues the case relentlessly is not a police officer, but a newspaper employee (a cartoonist, as a matter of fact). It could be described as a documentary. The characters are real, not artificial creations out of the sometimes all-too-eager pens of script-writers. Because they are real and so depicted, we take them seriously and empathize with them naturally. In them, the skillful director generates engaging drama, but never succumb to melodrama. The story itself already has such intrigue that it does not require any artificial manipulation. But still, it requires a masterful director to bring it to screen with lucid storytelling, superb pacing, tantalizing urgency, and well-placed humour.
The cast is splendid. We don't have glamour stars. What has been assembled is a solid group of character actors who are able to bring to you people you see in real life, not just in a movie. They are the people whose lives somehow become entangled with the case of a serial murderer that calls himself "Zodoic". Their brilliance is in making these real life characters not only completely believable but also intensely absorbing. Director David Fincher ("Se7en", "Fight club") shares the credit in making this happen.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays a very ordinary guy Robert Graysmith, a newspaper cartoonist, until he gets progressively obsessed with the case, to the extent of ALMOST ruining his life. Playing a sensible girl he meets and later marries is Chloe Sevigny, who was very impressive in "Shattered Glass" (2003) (another excellent movie on a real live story), and later in other supporting, but good roles, such as "Melinda and Melinda" (2004) and "Broken flowers" (2005). Robert Downey Jr., whose many movie appearances include the unique hairy freak in "Fur: an imaginary portrait of Diane Arbus" (2006), plays Graysmith's flamboyant colleague, whose life WAS ruined by his obsession with the case. Mark Ruffalo, the detective that is at once sensual and down-to-earth in "In the cut" (2003), is all down-to-earth here. He plays Inspector David Toschi, the detective who is most involved with the case, a no-nonsense, ordinary detective that finds himself getting deeper and deeper into this extraordinary, bizarre case. Ruffalo is a remarkable actor who has the magic of making you remember very ordinary characters he portrays, such as the sensitive, kind IT-guy-next-doors in "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" (2004). There are many others in this solid cast, and even those with two minutes of screen time and just a few lines are wonderful, such as Belli's housekeeper.
"Zodiac" is a fantastic movie that fully deserves its 158 minutes.