Zodiac (2007) — Read Along
“I am not the Zodiac. And if I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you”
A “based on a true story” tale of “The Zodiac”, and a serial killer in San Francisco of the 1970’s and 1980’s. Set mainly within the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper to whom The Zodiac sends his cryptic codes and cyphers, whilst also cutting away to additional evidence (for the audience in the main), and to the often very violent multiple killings of the mass murderer. But what’s crucial here is the time span involved, the frustration at the inability to solve the murders, to the character’s individual lives falling apart and failing, and often as a result of their failure to catch The Zodiac killer. A stellar supporting cast to the three stand out roles briefly noted below are Anthony Edwards who excels as local Police Inspector “William Armstrong”, Brian Cox as “Melvin Belli”, Elias Koteas as “Sergeant Jack Mulanax” and Chloe Sevigny as “Melanie”. There are numerous further supporting and cameo roles, notably Dermot Mulroney as “Captain Marty Lee” and Philip Baker Hall as “Sherwood Morrill”. The three main characters are each dissected, slowly and surely with layer upon layer of detail which is painstaking at times, but this is very much a character film detailing their choices, decisions and actions sometimes at odds, often contradictory, but triumphantly so in the hands of Fincher, and his three stand out actors:
“Robert Graysmith” (Jake Gyllenhaal) Gyllenhaal plays Graysmith, upon whose book the film is adapted. Nervous and cumbersome, he stumbles into the investigation by virtue of his hobby of puzzles and codes and quickly becomes a de facto part of the editorial team. Socially awkward, he becomes obsessed with the case to the detriment of his new family.
A stand out performance from Gyllenhaal.
“David Toschi” (Mark Ruffalo) Excellent in the role of a local Police Inspector. Torn between solving the case and/or moving on with his life, the character quickly dissolves into desperation and into aiding Graysmith legally and illegally with the task of solving the case.
“Paul Avery” (Robert Downey Jr) Yet again Downey Jr infuses his on screen character with a heightened mix of the bizarre and surreal. His performance is a true stand out as we again watch as a life is disturbed and pushed to the edge because of abject failure.
Because of the nature of the story itself (Newspaper/Police/Media) as the viewer you are often piecing the puzzle together with the characters. However a minor drawback is the long three hour run time and often the painstaking detail being played out in a newspaper office. A shortened run time and quicker editing between scenes would have taken a good film into a very good/great one.
“Zodiac” can also be found within my 7th and final volume of “Essential Film Reviews Collection” on Amazon (free to read on Kindle should you have the “Unlimited” package) and my review is also reproduced here in visual and verbal form via my Youtube channel:
"The Essential Film Reviews Collection Vol.7" - link to Amazon
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.