Movie Review: Zodiac

Zodiac

I'll be honest with you: I don't remember the Zodiac killings. I was very young, and very much interested in things other than the news at the time. I determined to see Zodiac solely on the strength of previews and the fact that I really did know so little about the crimes. Now that I've seen the movie, I'll be honest with you: I can understand how it is that so many people have been intrigued for so long. I know I certainly am!

The movie opens on the night of July 4, 1969. A young couple goes for a drive to a Vallejo, California lovers' lane where they're talking and laughing together when a car pulls up behind theirs. Frightened, the two breathe a sigh of relief when the car drives away. Scant minutes later, though, it returns. The driver approaches their car and, without a word, starts shooting. Later, a San Francisco cab driver is shot and killed during the course of an apparent robbery.

Police in both places investigate, but come up with few leads. Neither, of course, has any idea that the killings are at all related until three San Francisco newspapers receive letters demanding that a code be reproduced on their respective front pages. The letter is written by someone claiming to have shot the Vallejo couple, the cab driver, and more. He says he's provided different codes to each of the three papers, but that taken together, the codes will reveal his identity.

The San Francisco Chronicle's crime reporter is Paul Avery (Robert Downey, Jr.). He immediately grasps the scope of such a story and is quick to capitalize on it. The Chronicle's cartoonist, meanwhile, is fascinated with the code. Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) is pushed out of meetings and told to do his own job, but he just can't stop thinking about the codes.

The first code is eventually solved, and Graysmith is hooked. When more letters arrive, Avery is, too. And when Graysmith tells Avery about some of his ideas concerning the case, the two become thick as thieves.

Meanwhile, the cops are still coming up empty. Inspectors David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and William Armstrong (Anthony Edwards) are the San Francisco detectives assigned to the case. Despite the reluctant cooperation of law enforcement authorities in other jurisdictions in which the Zodiac has also purportedly killed, the pair continue coming up dry.

Years pass. Reporters come and go. Marriages wither and die. Detectives have other cases to solve. And yet the Zodiac killings continue to haunt those most closely touched by them even years and decades after the first letters heralded the start of the nightmare. Graysmith and Toschi in particular refuse to let go. But as they pursue one false lead after another, it becomes a question of how long either of the two can keep it up before either at long last identifying a dangerous serial killer or losing everything they hold most dear.

Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey, Jr. are all just terrific in Zodiac. I believed Graysmith's naive earnestness, Toschi's growing frustrations, and Avery's frenetic — and fragile — ambition. Brian Cox, Chloë Sevigny, and John Carroll Lynch are also good in supporting roles. Director David Fincher puts his experience in such thrillers as Panic Room and Se7en to good use with wonderful edits, camera angles, and a pace that never flags whether the scene involves humor or horror.

Writer James Vanderbilt penned the screenplay based on Graysmith's detailed novel and did a great job.With a three-decade timeline and tens of murders, he had a vast store of material to adapt. It's all of those details that are both the salvation and the near nemesis of the film. Clocking in at more than two hours and forty minutes, Fincher claims he couldn't cut any more and tell the story, and I believe him. While the length will doubtless give some pause, combined with sets that realistically take us back to the late 60's and early 70's, all of those details actually make Zodiac very nearly a documentary though a particularly thrilling one.

I knew going in that Zodiac was long. By the end, I knew that it had been only because of a certain body part that had gone numb. If not for that, I couldn't have believed so much time had passed. I was horrified and fascinated from the first minutes of the film. With so much to tell, even those segments of the movie that might have moved more slowly otherwise were deftly — and quickly — dealt with, and so they didn't. I really liked Zodiac, and all of you who enjoy thrillers, mysteries, or just plain good movies will, too.

FAMILY SUITABILITY: Zodiac is rated R for "some strong killings, language, drug material, and brief sexual images." Zodiac isn't suited for young children in its subject matter, the depiction of that subject matter, or its complexity. Mature kids of about 14 and up, though, should be fine with this film, although I'd caution that particularly sensitive viewers may have some difficult moments.