Jake Gyllenhaal in Paramount Pictures' Zodiac
© Paramount

Mania Grade: A
Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, Robert Downey Jr., Brian Cox, John Carrol Lynch, Chloe Sevigny, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, Philip Baker Hall
Writer: James Vanderbilt
Director: David Fincher
Distributor: Paramount
Rated: R

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"Zodiac"

During the 1960s and 1970s, the San Francisco area was terrorized by a serial killer who, in cryptic letters to the police and press, identified himself only as “the Zodiac”. The long running case has never been satisfactorily solved, and as with all such well publicized mysteries, the power of the puzzle is itself seductive, taking hold of those that delve into it even decades after it all began. There seems no end to it. Just last week, Zodiac online information clearinghouse ZodiacKiller.com announced that a greeting card had been found in the San Francisco Chronicle archives that is now thought to be an authentic and heretofore unnoticed Zodiac message (the card and envelope are undergoing DNA testing at present). While waiting for the press screening to begin, I looked down at my newspaper and couldn’t help but wonder if the ciphers included in the Zodiac’s later messages were perhaps a disguised Sudoku.  
 
In a 1978 letter to the Chronicle, Zodiac wondered whether a good movie would be made about his case. Over a half dozen movies have been made about Zodiac specifically, beginning with Tom Hanson’s 1971 Zodiac Killer (which was as much a sexploitation flick as a crime movie), and countless more have been “inspired” by the case, with Dirty Harry sited as the most outstanding springboard. But Zodiac, taken more or less directly from the pages of Robert Graysmith’s books, is probably as close as we’ll ever come to the “good movie” the killer wondered about.  

 
After some frankly shocking scenes dramatizing the first few crimes attributed to Zodiac, the narrative shifts to characters we can learn about a bit more easily. Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal of Jarhead) was a geeky Chronicle editorial cartoonist and single father when the Zodiac began his reign of terror, and was immediately spellbound when the mysterious letters started showing up, attaching himself to beat reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr., once again making fair trade of his behind-the-scenes reputation for substance abuse), who was assigned most of the Chronicle’s Zodiac coverage. When Zodiac kills San Francisco cab driver Paul Stine, apparently just to taunt the police and establish his identity for later messages, Inspector’s David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo of Rumor Has It) and William Armstrong (Anthony Edwards of TV’s ER) are assigned to the case by default, and are struck by a growing sense of dread as the case is revealed to be far more than a simple murder and robbery. We follow these men and those that share their lives – and are forced to share the Zodiac case – over the course of the next three decades, as the mystery runs through a maze of twists and turns. The case puts relentless pressure on Toschi – Arnstrong bails by requesting reassignment after a few frustrating years – and can be seen as an albatross that may have derailed his once promising career (Steve McQueen based his portrayal in Bullitt on Toschi ). Graysmith becomes more and more obsessed with the case, and when the alcoholic Avery brushes off his suggestion of collaboration on a book, Graysmith plunges into writing the book himself, ultimately pushing his family to the breaking point. Toschi, mired for years in the red tape of investigating a case spread out over the jurisdiction of at least four municipalities with thousands of false leads, is numbed into complete cynicism until Graysmith approaches him with research that may shed new light on the case, and while he can’t officially help, he gives Graysmith some clues that move the investigation forward.  
 
At somewhere around 160 minutes, Zodiac will grate on the patience of many viewers, and in this case the film’s added length seems to be intentional. One of the overwhelming aspects of the case is how much time has passed, with the Zodiac getting away with murder more by slipping through the machinery of the system than by his own cleverness or the incompetence of his pursuers. That these people have spent nearly four decades mired in such a maddening mystery is aptly conveyed by making the audience squirm in their seats for an additional 15 minutes or so. In some cases, bread must come before circuses in order to make a point, and besides, no doubt there are Zodiac enthusiasts who will complain that their favorite clue was left out. While our heroes trudge through the evidence, an f/x shot of the Trans America Pyramid under construction marks the passage of time, as the world moves on to other headlines. Lacking fresh murders to provide a chill factor late in, Fincher constructs some scenarios to increase tension. Toschi’s search of a suspect’s filthy, squirrel-infested trailer could be a scene cut out of Se7en, while Graysmith’s visit to the creepy basement of elderly film collector Bob Vaughn (Charles Fleischer, a standout among a large cast filled with excellent character actors) to follow up on a tip is more indicative of the author’s paranoia at the time than of anything actually sinister about Vaughn. Nevertheless, it sends some ice up your spine.  
 
Unlike the traditional thrillers we’re all familiar with, Zodiac shows us the effects more than the cause. Many of those that make the case a hobby have professed not only an intense interest in it, but use the word “love” when talking about the mystery. If Zodiac shows how a mysterious evil can be abstracted to the point where affection can be expressed for the enigma, this is a love story where the love really hurts.

Copyright © 2007 Brian Thomas, author of the massive book VideoHound’s Dragon: Asian Action & Cult Flicks, available now!