On July 4, 1969, a young couple decide to go out amidst the sparkling fireworks in the night sky. When the local restaurant winds up being too crowded, they go to a secluded spot that’s private and out of the way. They wind up getting accosted by a man with a flashlight. Thinking he’s a cop, they prepare to show him their Ids--until he pulls out a gun and shoots them both. The local police receive a phone call alerting them to the shooting. The caller, a man, knows intimate details of the crime scene that only the killer would know.
Several weeks later, the major newspapers in San Francisco receive letters from
the man who claims to be the killer of several people in the surrounding area.
He sends each paper part of a cipher--a coded message--that he wants them all to
publish. He promises that when cracked, the message will reveal his identity--but
once the message is deciphered, it turns out to be just another taunt from a
serial killer who now calls himself the Zodiac.
The Zodiac Killer certainly wasn’t the first serial killer in American history,
but he was one of the first to manipulate the media, whipping up a hysterical
frenzy that created a stranglehold of fear in the San Francisco area in the late
sixties and early seventies. With his first film since 2002’s Panic Room,
director David Fincher effectively recreates the terror of the Zodiac killings,
as well as the relentless manhunt for him. Jake Gyllenhaal is superb as Robert
Graysmith, a socially awkward cartoonist at the San Francisco Herald, a person
initially on the fringes of the investigation who eventually gets caught up in
the case on his own when he becomes consumed with finding the real identity of
the Zodiac Killer.
Mark Ruffalo is excellent as Inspector David Toschi, the lead investigator of
the Zodiac killings in San Francisco (and the real-life inspiration for Steve
McQueen’s character in the film Bullit), who grows increasingly frustrated at
chasing down a phantom. Robert Downey Jr. turns in another great performance as
Herald crime beat reporter Paul Avery, who becomes a glory hound, seeking more
and more fame, as the Zodiac case becomes a nationwide obsession. The rest of
the terrific cast is rounded out by Anthony Edwards, who plays Toschi’s partner;
Big Love’s Chloë Sevigny, who’s very good as
Graysmith’s long-suffering wife, and the always great Brian Cox, who plays
attorney Melvin Belli.
People who are squeamish about seeing horror movies should beware, for Fincher
shows two of the killings in all their horrific detail, and the mood of the film
overall is very dark and unsettling, with several scenes that are downright
unbearable in their tension. Unlike several lesser Zodiac movies that came
before his, Fincher wisely doesn’t glamorize the Zodiac Killer, but instead
focuses mainly on the hunt, which is a fascinating--and exasperating--story.
Fans of police procedurals like the Law & Order series will enjoy this one. The
DVD is pretty slim on special features, not even boasting a commentary. While
the film is marvelous, and worth owning, Fincher fans should hold off on buying
it until the inevitable Special Edition comes out.
--SF
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