zodiac

Zodiac

He's Still Out There!

Serial killers make good villainous subjects for movies, especially

notorious ones who never get caught, like Jack the Ripper, spinning

off countless of movie adaptations, each with its own theories on who

might be the real perpetrator, and responsible for the creation of a

subculture devoted to their study and conspiracy theories as natural

by products.

While England had her own uncaught cult slasher, America's San

Francisco Bay Area had its own serial killer to contend with, someone

who calls himself the Zodiac, responsible for taking the lives of

plenty in the late 60s. The hallmark of this killer is his terrorist

tactics of fear and threats, and the constant taunts and demands made

to both the press and the police, belittling and challenging them to

come out one step ahead. His killings seem almost random, and employed

various weapons from guns to knives, and those cryptic coded messages

sent to the press that could have its root keys from anywhere.

With a runtime of 158 minutes, you hardly notice the time whittle by

as you become transfixed throughout the entire movie. David Fincher

helmed this as a tight ship, firmly knowing its destination, while

riding out the complexity of it all, spanning almost a timeline of a

decade. Based on the books by Robert Graysmith, a cartoonist for the

San Francisco Chronicles portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal, this film

doesn't end with a cop out, as it firmly hypothesizes, and supports

its theories with whatever evidence it can get its hands on,

circumstantial or otherwise. It doesn't flinch from pointing that

accusatory finger.

I thought it combined many of the best elements found in Fincher's

earlier works, from the obvious stylistic feel of Se7en, also itself a

serial killer movie, the effects of Fight Club and the mindgames that

its characters play, and of course, the general feel of doom and gloom

of Panic Room. Light and Shadows become so integral that we take their

contribution to heighten senses of tension for granted, and the rain

brought back the memories of that classic confrontational scene from

Se7en, though here, it cleanses and erases plausible leads, as if to

start all over again to untangle from the messy investigations that

trailed off over time.

Those expecting a lot of action in the recreation of the Zodiac

killings might be disappointed, and I thought Fincher had steered

clear of the obvious, where lesser directors might have played up on

those gruesome murders, or photographs from the actual crime scene.

Here, it's more of a presentation on what could have happened based on

eyewitness and police reports, and it doesn't glorify. With the real

life folks who were involved in the cases onboard as consultants, you

know that this is as authentic as it can get.

What makes Zodiac engaging is that the movie engages you right from

the start, as you take on this investigative journey with the main

leads in Robert Graysmith (Gyllenhaal), Paul Avery the Chronicle's

senior crime report, played by Robert Downey Jr, and Inspector Dave

Toshi of the San Francisco Police Department, portrayed by Mark

Ruffalo. We see how the case develops into an obsession for each of

these men, as we encounter countless of confusion, red tape, turf

protection, dedication to due process, and hindrance. The various

departments involved can't work together, and attempts at cooperation

are mountains to climb. So it's no wonder that cases like these that

span different boundaries, often come up to naught, or take ages to

get cracked on.

Zodiac is told in two seamless halves, with the first devoted to the

killings and methodology of the killer, and the second giving

Graysmith more screen time as he goes for a second helping at trying

to piece the puzzles together right from the very beginning. After

all, that's one way to do it when stuff turn out all over the place,

and the trail gets cold. It's classic investigative journalism, and

builds to a resounding crescendo, while you too get frustrated at what

can, and cannot be done, what can be presented as evidence, and how

circumstantial evidence, strong as they may seem, will always remain

circumstantial despite it being possibly damning. There are genuine

creepy moments that will get to you, even though there's nothing

horrific, or ghoulish about those scenes. That's classic Fincher for

you, making your hair stand with achieved subtlety.

Despite its huge cast list and extras, the key leads all delivered

strong performances, bringing the movie onto another level, more so

with the film's excellent music from the era, and its art direction

and sets recreating the 70s SF. And for film buffs, well, Dirty Harry

was after all based on the killings and taunting tactics of Zodiac

too.