Movie Review: Zodiac

Last night I saw David Fincher's (Se7en, Fight Club, Panic Room) new film Zodiac, about the serial killings by the Zodiac Murderer in and around San Francisco in the late 60s and early 70s. The crimes were never officially solved, but Robert Graysmith, a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle, pursued the case relentlessly until he believed he solved the case. The film is based on two books that he wrote.

Graysmith is played by Jake Gyllenhaal who solidly captures the obsession that is the core of the film. It is an obsession with detail and concentration. Initially Graysmith is a bystander who observes crime reporter Paul Avery, portrayed by Robert Downey, Jr. in a brilliant performance (not unusual for Mr. Downey) that stories the decline from louche, cocky, but alert journalist to bitter, addicted has-been. Avery's main source is Detective Dave Toschi, played by Mark Ruffalo as a cross between Serpico and Columbo. The three leads are actors I love to watch; they have a way of getting under your skin. Chloe Sevigny plays Graysmith's frumpy wife, still atoning for her Brown Bunny fiasco.

Acknowledging it's cinematic predecessors, one scene takes place at an SFPD screening of Dirty Harry, built around a fictionalized version of the Zodiac killings. Ruffalo is at least once referred to as Bullitt, a nod to the fact that Toschi was the role model for Steve McQueen's Bullitt. The killer was apparently inspired by the 1932 film, The Most Dangerous Game. This path of inquiry leads Graysmith to a creepy scene in a dank basement with a spookily effective Charles Fleischer.

As the case moves on, Graysmith transforms from interested bystander to the prime mover of a cold case. He fervently hunts down minutiae and accumulates small facts and connects the dots to draw a map that leads him to a face-to-face encounter with a man that he looks in the eye and believes is the killer. It is a testament to perseverance and concentration, even to the detriment of his family life.

Fincher seems to identify with Graysmith. The film has no sweeping narrative chords, but is a note-by-note construction. The story is very dense and intricate, but the filmmaker seizes details with the same fervor as his cinematic counterpoint and ultimately attains clarity, if not certainty.

The cinematographer Harris Savides finds ways to illuminate Fincher's penchant for darkness so that it isn't the burden it was in Se7en. Though much of the film takes place at night or in dark places, Savides finds highlights and contrasts that give enough glow to reveal the visual information we need to be pulled into the scene.

There are some excellent performances in small roles, notably Philip Baker Hall as a handwriting analyst, another devotee of detail and concentration; Anthony Edwards as Toschi's partner who doesn't have the stomach for homicide; and the ubiquitous Brian Cox as attorney Melvin Belli, who gets caught up in the media circus of Zodiac. I am old enough to remember when there were only two celebrity lawyers: F. Lee Bailey of Chicago, and Melvin Belli of San Francisco. Both were showmen and self-promoters. Cox approaches the role with a serio-comic flair.