Zodiac: Dead letter office
INFO
Zodiac
4 stars. Directed by David Fincher. Stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo. Rated R. At area theaters.
Filmmaker David Fincher directs Zodiac, the fact-based tale of the pursuit of a serial killer, like a man trying to refute the example of such style-over-substance thrillers as Se7en. Which is interesting, because Fincher made Se7en himself.
An undeniably vivid but ultimately empty exercise in modern-day Gothic horrors, Se7en and its imitators make showy attempts to grapple with Evil with a capital E, personified in the form of a relentless murderer. By portraying mass murderers as vaguely superhuman monsters (and casting A-list actors such as Kevin Spacey and Anthony Hopkins to play them), such films may have the unintended consequence of glorifying the villains.
Zodiac never loses sight of the human cost of pursuing a mass murderer, dramatizing the personal and social effects of the so-called "Zodiac" killings in California in the late 1960s and '70s. Not that Fincher stints on suspense. Zodiac includes some superbly constructed and deeply disturbing murder scenes, beginning with a 1969 lover's-lane attack (set to the dreamy strains of Donovan's "Hurdy-Gurdy Man") worthy of a terrifying campfire story.
Immediately afterward, we follow a letter from a mail truck to the newsroom of the San Francisco Chronicle. The alleged killer confesses to the crime, provides insider information about the killing and demands the publication of an encrypted message. The crimes and the ciphers enthrall Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), who's initially something of a cipher himself. As a socially awkward cartoonist, the Chronicle's editorial staff (including Robert Downey Jr. as reporter Paul Avery) treats Graysmith more like a pet than a peer.
The first half of Zodiac follows the killings and investigations from the perspective of two institutions. Through Graysmith and Avery, we follow the press coverage of the crimes and the subsequent letters, which prove, admittedly, great for newspaper sales. Meanwhile, inspector David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and his partner lead the police work, which includes listening to dozens of kooky false confessions and managing turf wars over jurisdiction.
One of the unnerving aspects of Zodiac is the sheer complexity of serving justice, particularly in crimes without motive such as the Zodiac killings. The police pursue red herrings and blind alleys, while key pieces of evidence fall through the cracks and then surface without warning. The film makes a deliberate counterpoint with the 1971 release of Dirty Harry, the Clint Eastwood vehicle that features a villain patterned closely after Zodiac. Even though circumstantial evidence points to a prime suspect (chillingly played by John Carroll Lynch), Toschi is bound by due process.
Graysmith takes a more active role in the film's second half, which skips ahead four years after the initial Zodiac killings. The notion that Zodiac remains at large gnaws at Graysmith, who begins working on a book and playing amateur detective, with the reluctant, back-channel assistance of Toschi and others. Although Zodiac features some conventional sequences with Chloë Sevigny in the standard, thankless role of the disapproving spouse, the film captures the depth of Graysmith's fixation. He becomes like a junkie, and finding a new lead or a fresh clue is like getting a fix. And the audience, in turn, becomes similarly engrossed in his sleuthing.
Despite the story's realistic dimensions, Zodiac won't be mistaken for a documentary. Fincher allows himself some bravura visuals such as the Zodiac letters scrawling across the walls when the inspectors enter the newsroom. The sight of one suspect's home, ill-lit and crawling with rodents, could be an outtake from Se7en. But for the most part, Zodiac is a film unafraid of facts, of the unglamorous details of amassing forensic evidence and the haunting ambiguities when the pieces don't neatly fit.
Zodiac won't corner the market on serial-killer movies; people have fixated on such criminals since before the crimes of Jack the Ripper. But few films so effectively convey how such murders take hold on the public and private imagination. Zodiac dispenses with the surreal atmospherics of Se7en and keeps the drama life-sized, and in so doing uncovers reserves of genuine moral outrage.
COMMENTS
RE: Zodiac: Dead letter office
Posted by Herman G. on 03.07.07 @ 05:03 PM
Graysmith!!!