ZODIAC

"I like killing people because man is the most dangerous animal of all."

If asked who my five favorite directors were, I would probably throw David Fincher's name on the list, even though he has only made a handful of films. Why? He has made two of my absolute most favorite films, in SE7EN and FIGHT CLUB (I consider the latter to be the best movie of the 1990s). ZODIAC, his newest film, is sort of a mix of the dead-serious tone of SE7EN and the playful, anarchist tone of FIGHT CLUB. While it isn't as good as either of the aforementioned duo, it's a terrific film on its own.

Chronicling the on-again, off-again serial killer's (who called himself Zodiac) reign over the greater San Francisco area from the 1970s to the early 1980s, Fincher's film is possibly the most epic, ambitious crime procedural ever. Forget the carnage and violent pornography shows such as CSI display every week, ZODIAC shows the long-lasting effects of the murders, not the bloody details of them. Especially involved in the case is San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), SFPD Inspectors David Toschi and William Armstrong (Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards), and San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.). Over the course of more than a decade, the world changes around them, but their lives becomes more and more devoted to the Zodiac killings. Gyllenhaal is the stand-out in the cast, the character who really takes over the third act of the film. He played Robert Graysmith as an eccentric, lovable loser of a guy, who is constantly ridiculed, and even badgered, over his involvement in the case. Gyllenhaal plays him with a lot of life, and brilliantly shows the futility Graysmith feels as the Zodiac killer becomes less and less a public story, but the dominating force in his own life.

As he has shown with SE7EN and FIGHT CLUB, and now ZODIAC, Fincher knows how to create atmospheres in which violence and crime corrupts and consumes people. As Paul Avery succumbs to alcoholism and the cops practically begin beating themselves over the head, knowing who the killer is in their gut but not being able to prove it, the film takes on a subtley dark tone. Cinematographer Harris Savides knows that less is more (he is the auteur behind ELEPHANT), and his washed-out look of the 70s is authentic, sprawling, and the attention to detail is obvious. As the film progresses further and further into the psyches of its main characters, the film's look becomes darker and darker, but you have to pay attention to notice.

If ZODIAC has any fault, it is that it's twenty minutes too long. There may be a point to the enormous runtime (about 170 minutes), as the Zodiac file was open from 1974 to 2004, but the film could use some judicious editing. Some middle stretches are unneeded, neither deepening character arcs or showing anything new. This is an ambitious film though, covering an entire decade (how many CSI episodes can claim that?) and telling a terrific story filled with authentic characters who actually have arcs and the audience feels for. It's also David Fincher's best film since, well, FIGHT CLUB.

A-