Horrorscope
With 'Zodiac,' Fincher strips down his style in pursuit of the notorious killer
At the end of Alexander Bulkley's The Zodiac (made in 2003, released in L.A. in March 2006) - one of many, many film/TV productions about the never-apprehended serial killer who terrorized Northern California in the late '60s and '70s - we are told that the Zodiac's final letter included the line "I am waiting for a good movie about me."
At long last, his wait is over, thanks to director David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club).
While satisfying the wishes of a vile psychopath shouldn't be high on the list of anyone's priorities, Zodiac's gain is ours as well. In his first film since the 2002 Panic Room, Fincher has crafted a completely engrossing "true" crime saga that holds our attention consistently for more than two and a half hours.
For those who don't remember the case: Zodiac probably stimulated the imagination of the public more than any killer since Jack the Ripper. He may not have been the first American serial killer to promote his activities publicly, but he was one of the cleverest, exploiting media competition by sending a series of provocative letters to Bay Area newspapers. Some of them included long messages in a baroque-looking code; the cipher was broken, but some details are still debated. After a few years, Zodiac suddenly dropped from sight ... then, after a few more, reappeared with new communiqués.
Fincher's film focuses on several real-life figures who became obsessed with the case. The lead investigator in San Francisco was homicide detective Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo); even prior to the notoriety Zodiac conferred on him, his charismatic manner had influenced Steve McQueen's ultracool cop in Bullitt. Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) was the San Francisco Chronicle reporter who covered the story and eventually became part of it. And Chronicle political cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) was a friend of Avery - an amateur who eventually wrote two books about Zodiac.
There is no one clear protagonist: Fincher intercuts these characters with each other and with reenactments of the crimes. For most of the first half, Toschi is the central figure; after he gets taken off the case, our identification switches almost completely to Graysmith. This might seem problematic, particularly for a director with a strongly subjective visual style.
But the most surprising thing about Zodiac is that Fincher employs a style 180 degrees opposed to the sort of pyrotechnics that made Se7en and Fight Club two of the most influential movies of the last 20 years. The range of film noir has always accommodated both the heavy stylization of German Expressionism and the almost newsreel-like matter-of-factness of the police procedural, and here Fincher abandons the former for the latter.
He also has the benefit of an extraordinary cast, a sort of character actors' who's who: in addition to those already mentioned are Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, Chloë Sevigny, John Carroll Lynch, Candy Clark (ever so briefly), Elias Koteas, Dermot Mulroney, Donal Logue, James Le Gros, Zack Grenier, Adam Goldberg, Charles Fleischer, Clea Duvall, and Philip Baker Hall (who was also in Bulkley's Zodiac film). Still, while everyone does good work, it's Downey who once again amazes; his energy and idiosyncratic manner lift the entire enterprise.
Zodiac appears to make a very strong case for the guilt of one particular suspect, but it's important to remember that Fincher, despite a great deal of research, has relied centrally on Graysmith's experiences and books - which are the subject of a lot of derision among Zodiac buffs. So, despite its success as art, it may not be wise to regard it as the final word on the central questions of the case.
Published: 03/01/2007
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