In the film “Zodiac,” Jake Gyllenhaal plays Robert Graysmith, a political cartoonist who witnesses the threats that the Zodiac killer makes to his place of work, the San Francisco Chronicle. Graysmith first becomes involved when he gets his hands on one of the infamous zodiac codes, which reveals the Zodiac “identity.”
Yet, after someone solves the riddle, there is only a statement describing why the Zodiac kills which says “man is the most dangerous animal of all.” Graysmith, constantly belittled by his surrounding staff as a Boy Scout goody-goody (Robert deNiro goes as far to call him retarded), continues to keep track of the Zodiac killer.
The film focuses on Graysmith more towards the end of the film, when he finally decides to write a book about “Zodiac.” The truth is that he has no right to obtain inside information or the infamous zodiac letters sent to his paper, but he risks everything to research the murders, which yields new clues, a book and, ultimately, this film.
The film is directed by David Fincher, who first became known as a great with his film “Se7en”. He went on to create other notorious thrillers such as “Fight Club” and “Panic Room” in his post-novice years. In “Zodiac,” he continues to illustrate his incredible capacity to tell a story with perhaps gruesome elements in an sophisticated manner.
However, Zodiac is much different than his previous films as it recounts a story of historical importance. According to Rolling Stone, Fincher himself revealed that he remembered hearing about the Zodiac’s threat to the media industry when he was seven.
Zodiac tells the story from the views of those who were most affected by it – the writers and the media that were tortured by his constant threats. During the late 1960s Northern California, there were many murders but Zodiac stood out because of his undying willingness to remain in the spotlight. Fincher exaggerates the Zodiac’s desire to create fear in the public community.
The film has some problems dealing with character development, mostly because there were so many people working on the Zodiac case for such a long period of time all across California. Fincher, however, does a good job making us like Gyllenhaal’s character by portraying him with his family and conveying how much he gave up to investigate the Zodiac murders.
Other main characters include Mark Ruffulo, who plays the Zodiac-obsessed David Toschi from the San Francisco Police Department.
Robert Downey, Jr. plays a mysterious character, Paul Avery, who is the main crime columnist on Zodiac at the SF Chronicle. Robert Downey Jr.’s character, who actually becomes a recipient of a personalized Zodiac letter, begins to lose his mind and fall into a world of drugs after spending too much time on the Zodiac killings.
Although the character development is not at its best, Fincher does an excellent job at picking important elements of the story to expand or downplay.
He uses many cinematic tactics that can often be found in thrillers, such as providing false leads to create suspense. He chooses to portray certain suspects and not others, in order to keep the audience focused and enthused. And although the film does include some re-enactments of the actual murders, it is not horror movie.
At first, I was skeptical that the movie would be able to hold my interest for a whole 165 minutes, but David Fincher did not fail his audiences. At the end of this film, I wished there was even more to learn. I guess now is about time to pick up the book “Zodiac.”
If you have ever spent a night watching a Cold Case Files marathon or if you just like puzzles, then Zodiac is for you.
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