Zodiac – Jonathan Parker

The weight of too many stories stretches everything out longer and longer and longer until we start looking at our watches…

A serial killer is on the loose in the San Francisco Bay area, and the press, the police and one obsessed cartoonist scramble for years to put the mystery together in the engaging but over-extended thriller Zodiac. From director David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en), this film focuses more on the ins and outs of cracking the case than on either suspenseful action or the creepy serial-killer violence for which Fincher made his name.

Zodiac is based on a real case and the book by lead character Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal). Graysmith is a political cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle, who thanks to his interest in puzzles, becomes intrigued by the case of serial killer Zodiac. This mysterious murderer sends letters with coded messages to the city’s newspapers as he kills people. Covering the story is Chronicle crime beat reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.), who helps push the case to the front of the media. The front of the media is exactly where lead police detective David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) does not want it to be. Zodiac kills not many more than a handful of victims, yet the case unfolds over years and years. Meanwhile, those who frustratingly try to solve the case find their personal and professional lives slipping away.

The film plays out in two parts. Indeed, it’s as if Fincher couldn’t decide which angle he wanted to take.

As a result, for most of the movie, the film follows all the various reporters and detectives trying to get their man, jumping from investigator to investigator. Then, just when we think the movie might be reaching some sort of climax, the film practically starts again, now focused exclusively on Graysmith and his obsession and own investigation that leads to his book.

The film works best as a sort of All the Presidents Men meets one of those gritty Sidney Lumet cop movies like Q & A or Prince of the City. We see the inner workings of the newsroom and of police detective work, and the acting is just interesting enough for us not to be able to take our eyes of the screen. Ultimately, the film’s desire to be too many things stretches everything out longer and longer and longer (two hours and 35 minutes worth), until we start looking at our watches wondering when the movie will wrap up — even when it’s apparent that they’re not even close to wrapping up the case.

Good drama/thriller • R • 155 mins.