It's tough to pull off a movie like "Zodiac", director David Fincher's fanatically detailed account of the titular serial killer's Bay Area murder spree during the late 60s and early 70s. Aside from some brief, gruesome killings, much of the film's two-plus hour running time is devoted to painstaking police procedure. Not exactly the stuff that Mr. Fincher is known for. The script by James Vanderbilt ("Basic", "Darkness Falls") - based on Robert Graysmith's equally obsessive books, as well as actual case files - takes great pains to paint a picture of the frustratingly inconclusive wealth of facts surrounding this notorious, and still unsolved, mystery.
Comparisons to Alan J. Pakula's 1976 masterpiece, "All the President's Men", are inevitable and, one would hope, flattering. Few police procedural dramas come to mind that crack and pop like these. Despite the insane amount of facts thrown at the screen, the film feels well-paced and tightly written. In place of Woodward and Bernstein, we have Graysmith, Toschi and Avery. Mr. Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal, nicely neurotic) is a cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle when the Zodiac's infamous ciphers start showing up. David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo, in another wonderfully grounded performance) is the SFPD detective nearly derailed by the investigation. And Robert Downey Jr walks away with every scene in his inimitable way as the Chronicle's crime reporter Paul Avery. The three each play a role in bringing the killer closer into focus. And each man is affected by the proceedings in his own way. The actors are uniformly wonderful, literally handing off the film to one another as it progresses.
Having grown up in the Bay Area at the time of the killings, Mr. Fincher obviously feels a personal bond with this material. The period details - the clothes, the music, the haircuts - are perfect. It's easy to overdo the 60s and 70s, but Mr. Fincher and his crew achieve a rare subtle authenticity here. "Zodiac" is filled with minutiae to appease any OCD trivia buff. Mr. Toschi's unique way of wearing his holster provided the inspiration for Steve McQueen in "Bullitt"; The serial killer Scorpio from the first "Dirty Harry" movie was modeled on Zodiac; Brian Cox's character, Melvin Belli, appeared in the "And the Children Shall Lead" episode of the original "Star Trek" series.
David Fincher movies can be tricky. The director is a visual genius but only occasionally has he found stories which match his vision. With "Zodiac", the director's trademark style takes a backseat; in fact, there is little in the film - with the possible exception of a bravura time-lapse shot of the Transamerica Pyramid being built - that screams "This is a David Fincher movie". But in that way the director has made his most - and maybe his first - personal film. At times his attention to detail feels less obsessive than loving - particularly in the scenes with Mr. Graysmith and his children. And at other times the film flags in its methodical time-jumping. But the fact that "Zodiac" works so well is a triumph for Mr. Fincher, Mr. Vanderbilt and the cast. Above all else, the film feels like an evolution for Mr. Fincher. And, as always, I can't wait to see what he does next.
