Zodiac (2007)

[5]

Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey, Jr. star in David Fincher’s film about the investigation of the so-called ‘Zodiac’ killer in the late ’60s through the early ’80s. Downey and Gyllenhaal’s characters work for the San Francisco Chronicle, which begins receiving letters from the killer. As he seeks fame in the press, Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards are the cops who try for years to identify Zodiac for arrest. Since the murders are committed in different counties, jurisdiction becomes an unfortunate obstacle in the investigation, which goes dormant in the late ’70s until Gyllenhaal’s character, Robert Graysmith, begins writing a book about the case and pretty much solves the mystery… even though it would take a few more years for the police to catch up with him.

There’s no denying the inherent drama and mystery surrounding the Zodiac case and Fincher does a fantastic job laying out all the evidence, presenting what feels like a comprehensive report about it. It’s ripe for a great documentary, but not necessarily a great movie. I was never invited to invest in the characters. I’m not even sure who the main character is. In the last thirty minutes, it becomes clear Gyllenhaal is the one to latch onto, and that the story might be about his Captain Ahab-like obsession with the case. But that’s too little, too late in a movie that runs two hours and forty minutes with scant character development and no discernible character motivations other than ‘solve the case’.

The murder scenes are captured nonchalantly and the film is denied any kind of visceral or emotional climax, though Roger Rabbit‘s Charles Fleischer is used to creepy effect towards the end. The cast bring to the table their own brands of charisma, but the performances don’t really matter because the characters don’t matter. It’s almost like Fincher resolved himself to telling the story with facts — just the facts, with no embellishment of any kind. And just like in real life, the facts becomes less and less interesting until the case sputters to an unsatisfying ending.

With Brian Cox, Chloe Sevigny, Elias Koteas, Dermot Mulroney, and John Carroll Lynch.