Review of Zodiac (2007) by Dillinger P — 21 Oct 2014

David Fincher treads into the dark and heavy true crime world, where everyone's a suspect and obsession is everything. It's a more suitable story for him than say Panic Room, with a lot more subtext going on and sets him onto the true path to greatness, in my opinion.

Zodiac is based on a true stories set between the late 60's and early 90's. It follows the obsession of 3 men, who's paths intertwine as a serial killer, who calls himself the Zodiac, goes on a murderous rampage and enjoys publicity with his work by playing a game of cat and mouse with the media.

To this day, the Zodiac has never been found guilty, however there were many a suspect and this film tries its best to touch on what it can, without coming outright and pointing the finger, even though it cant help itself from blurting it out from time to time.

Paul Avery, a big shot news reporter, with quite the penchant for fame and booze teams up with a fellow team member and cartoonist, Robert Greysmith, once the letters come flying in thick and fast and the bodies start racking up.

Both men fall into a downward spiral, hunting for a man that cannot be found, eventually David Toschi gets dragged into it as a detective, who looses a lot more than sleep over his decade long obsession with catching this man responsible.

It's a long winded, thick and fast who done it, without the big reveal as such. The ensemble here is top notch, not one actor out of place, Jake Gyllenhaal is ace at the code breaking and book worm cartoonist, bouncing wildly off his counter part Robert Downey JR, who plays Avery, an alcoholic drug abuser who shoots for fame and just about loses everything.

The chemistry between them is brilliant, if not a little short lived. Mark Ruffalo makes up the trio with Dave, this man is such an understated actor, Ruffalo has been at it for some time now and every role he touches, he smacks with professionalism and a naturalistic nature, very few actors to date can touch on.

You can see the struggle in this mans eyes constantly, Ruffalo lives this character he doesnt act him. The supporting cast of semi regular Fincher faces and Chloe Sevingy are also well cast and yet again sadly their inclusion is understated.

The story is a lot to chew on, so naturally the film hurtles at breakneck speed in order to get as much information crammed in as possible, this was Fincher perfecting his craft per say, his pacing has always been top notch, but here he fires scenes that are literally blink and you will miss some very important information.

As mentioned earlier, hes still honing at this point and some of the character development with Paul Avery and some supporting actors kind of just doesnt happen. It's not critical as our focus fully shifts onto Jake and Mark for the final half but to continually refrence him once every 20 mins just feels slightly too tacked on for my liking.

The film is gorgeous as per, however compared to the last outing, Fincher is more reserved, he uses his techniques to great effect, in order to gain a sense of dread and desperation. sparingly using tracking shots for when they really matter and it works.

It's as if he just had to get all of that out his system and figure out what worked best for what. The grade on the film is also perfect, giving a real sense of time about it, each era is reconstructed brilliantly from colour schemes on set down to musical score, even the actors aging make up is brilliant.

This film does however not lure you in, its a long film and unlike most of his other films, Fincher just presents his idea to you, if you like it you will invest and be truely horrified with its tales, however he doesnt try too hard to win everybody over.

He isnt waiting for everyone to catch on and names and faces will come and go as quick as minutes before becoming a by product. This movie is strictly for Fincher fans and crime purists, anyone else will be left with a sense of boredom, confusion and most likely deflation by the end of the third act.

A return to form and a stepping stone to greatness. under rated but far from perfect.