Zodiac (***1/2)

? In 1969 and into the early 1970s, someone began to kill people in and around San Francisco, beginning with a young couple in the suburb of Vallejo. Working from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt (The Rundown), director David Fincher (Panic Room, Fight Club) tones things down, stylistically, to portray the hunt for the killer, focusing most prominently on a wiry, alcoholic San Francisco Chronicle reporter (Robert Downey Jr.), two city police inspectors (Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards), and a nerdy Chronicle cartoonist, Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), who would go on to write the books that inspired this movie.
+ Unlike the dozens of serial-killer movies that have come out over the past couple of decades, Zodiac is more mystery than thriller. We see the murders attributed to Zodiac shot realistically, but without sensationalism, without music. The search for the killer, not the killer himself, is the focus. Vanderbilt’s script shows the messiness of this kind of investigation, the nonlinearity, the way it can be difficult to weave everything together, and the many red herrings. Zodiac has certain particulars, notably the use of a cipher that helped him gain notoriety, but he’s not as neat and habitual as his fictional counterparts. Nor is the investigation, which involves reporters and police in multiple jurisdictions, multiple suspects, other figures like the handwriting expert played by Philip Baker Hall, and the general public. Fincher weaves all of this irregularity together in a cohesive narrative.
- It’s a function of following the facts, but the story loses a little of its edge when the time frame transitions from weeks to months and years. But, to reiterate, this is more of a detective story, even a character study, than a thriller.
= ***1/2 This detailed drama might disappoint people looking for another Se7en, Fincher’s heavily stylized, fictional serial-killer horror film. It presents Graysmith’s take on the case, never officially solved, but may also disappoint people who want a more definitive ending. At the same time, the subject matter may scare off its ideal audience, one that likes complex stories and characters with frayed edges.

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reviewed 3/8/07