In the realm of the Serial Killer films – you have many sub-genres. There’s the based on facts, serial killer films. The serial killer suspense film. There’s even the serial killer romantic science fiction film, which happens to be one of my favorites – TIME AFTER TIME.

ZODIAC is a factual film. A movie based on case files and the lives of those that pursued the mystery of “Who Is Zodiac?” This is an unusual mystery, because officially it was never solved and there were many people on the case. You had the police that were looking at the case, but the detectives on the case weren’t just in San Francisco, but in other counties – in other cities spread over California. Then there was the Press, always trying to “help” in their own, often misguided, ways. And then you had the amateur sleuths – in many ways this film is about one of those guys, an amateur, that became obsessed. Obsessed in the way that reminded me of Roy Neary’s obsession, but more natural – spread out over decades – his close encounter is of an entirely different kind, and it is true.

This is, almost certainly, David Fincher’s most accomplished work to date. It isn’t like anything that he’s ever done before. Here, he’s using all his tricks to tell a straight forward tale about a predator that preyed upon a society and how society tried to stop it. It’s an exhausting story – and ultimately if you want a conclusion that satisfies your taste for justice… that’s not really going to happen here.

There’s a reason this is a long movie. ZODIAC isn’t a quick story, this isn’t a story in a classic three act variety. You’ve got a film filled with characters – each a lead for the point in time that this story is theirs to investigate. It isn’t that ZODIAC was a genius… while watching this film, you’ll be aggravated at why things fell through the cracks. Pissed at the press, the lack of cooperation between various investigative folks – and when it really does end up coming down to the amateur sleuth to figure it out, you realize why all the parties want to help. He has the passion for it, the thirst to figure it out, the need to find the guy that did it. That terrorized a city and made Robert Graysmith worry about letting his kids ride a school bus to school.

Many critics will be bringing up various films to compare this to, but in some ways – it reminds me of the Korean film, MEMORIES OF MURDER. That movie is totally different, yet very similar. Both films feature true cases that ultimately were never solved. Both films detail aggravating situations that kept the investigation from moving forward. The biggest difference is – ultimately we do know who committed the murders as the ZODIAC, but we don’t know who was responsible in Korea. The other commonality is that they’re exquisitely crafted films that take us through the history of the investigations into the serial killers that plagued their societies.

As for ZODIAC – the digital cinematography is lush and beautiful. Just gorgeous. It’s filled with shots that take your breath away. The acting across the board is superior. The stand-outs?

The most showy performance belongs to Robert Downey Jr as Paul Avery, the self-abusive headline grabber that covered the early years of the Zodiac in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Downey is charismatic, sleazy and on a constant lost weekend. He’s a reporter that doesn’t think about the effect that his story may have, his usage of language, his desire to be a bit of a rock star journalist… his stories became part of the problem, something that I vainly hope will be reflected upon by a media that exploits instead of informs.

The next most captivating performance, to me, belonged to Mark Ruffalo as Inspector David Toschi. This is a great Detective story. In the story of the Zodiac, he’s not a hero, but you know what – in the countless cases that he was on, that he did solve, where he did bring to justice a variety of felons… yeah, he was a hero, because he gave every case a level of dedication that it needed. It was just that in the cast of Zodiac, there was just too wide a net and too many false leads and too much interference and just not enough evidence. Knowing who did it and being able to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt are two entirely different things. Wait till you see him watching DIRTY HARRY, you’ll probably never look at that film the same way again.

Then there’s Jake Gyllenhaal as Robert Graysmith. He’s a curious character. Jake plays the cartoonist as a man with a hobby. A morbid fascination with a code that the Zodiac sent in which grew into an obsession into all things Zodiac. After all the initial investigators have essentially moved on or retired, it was his curiosity to look at all the facts, all the situations and suspects that led to what is widely accepted to be the truth of the matter.

I loved the film. I found it to be a methodical telling of what happened and how someone like the Zodiac could go on for such a long period of time without being brought to justice. It was a different time back then. All the information wasn’t logged into computers, people didn’t cooperate from department to department the way one would like. The one problem that the police steal have to deal with – is the insanity that the media has continued to become.

This is the definitive film on ZODIAC that we’re likely to ever see.