Z O D I A C

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Summary:
Investigators are baffled by the media-hungry serial killer known as "The Zodiac", causing sensational buzz across the nation. Inspectors encounter endless leads that lead to nowhere, all the while the Zodiac seems to taunt them, and WANT to be captured.
The person to come closest to catching the killer is Robert Graysmith, a cartoonist who becomes obsessed with tracking him down over a span of decades.

Review:
Big kudos goes to David Fincher for making a movie that has virtually no action run 160 minutes... and still manage to keep me interested! Fincher decided to keep this runtime to help build on the character development, feeling that if he cut out 40 more minutes, it would be more of a police files documentary than a movie about the people involved in the mystery. I agree. I don't think I'd gut this movie any more than it was, and the runtime doesn't lag for lack of interest.
Throughout the 70's, the Zodiac wrote constant letters bragging about his murders, and demanded that his cryptographic codes be printed in the papers, taunting the police and the public for over a decade. It's a wonderful mystery that has had countless documentaries, and a few movies previously. This is by far my favorite rendition.
A well rounded cast performs with stellar precision, with Gyllenhaal carrying most of the burden as our faulted but well meaning cartoonist. He's a nice guy who loves working with puzzles. Eventually, the mystery of Zodiac consumes him, alienating himself from his woman and kids, while also endangering them after being on the news, therefore having the Zodiac - or someone pretending to be him - making prank calls. He's a great fit for the role to portray, keeping me rooted to the storyline and rooting for him to solve his mystery.
Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo also do freakin' fantastic. I think Ruffalo is great, and want to see him in more movies. Downey is usually himself in all his movies, but you know what? I believe him. I trust that what he says and does in the movies he's in are done in earnest. He can be any kind of personality and it comes across as Downey, but with the actions and intentions of whoever he plays onscreen. Then there's that 'one guy' - I have no idea who he is - that works at the movie theater. He has one of the funniest scenes in the movie, and I had to laugh at the awkward moments when he sends Graysmith down to his cellar. I won't say more because I don't want to ruin the moment.

As mentioned earlier, Fincher did a fantastic job directing this drama with a behemoth of a runtime. It's not as 'flashy' as his previous outings, with the cinematography staying rather slow-paced and laid back as opposed to those classy panning-through-the-houseframe CGI rendered moments in Panic Room, or the other flashy eye candy moments in Fight Club and everything else he's done. I won't say he's matured... I just think he felt this movie didn't call for that tone as much. We still get some very impressive time-lapse cityscape photography that I'm sure is CGI embellished, if not completely CGI. That's another thing I really like about Fincher - his computer imagery in his movies are some of the best in the business. He knows how to mix real world with computer-world cohesively, making me have a hard time discerning an effect from the real thing.

Zodiac is not much more than a wild goose chase from open to close, but everything that happens between those endless interviews and file searching helps us focus on the people just as much as the investigation. I respect the decision to not worry about runtime as much as storytelling. In this case, the length helps build interest in the story instead of detract, unlike say The Good Shephard. That was fucking boring just for the sake of making it long to give the impression of making a movie that's more than what it is. With Zodiac, I actually found myself wanting to hear more about the search for the killer, and I think a lot of that has to do with my liking these people who I went on this journey with.

GRADE: B+

Reviewed: 3/6/07