Zodiac (2007)

If you were to rank modern directors, most people would have David Fincher near the top of their list. He is a master, capable of matching style to story while still keeping all the distinctive features that let you know it's a Fincher film. In 2007, he released 'Zodiac' which tells the story of the still unsolved case of the Zodiac killer, who terrorised the San Francisco / Bay Area in the late 1960s and early 1970s. 

As with all of Fincher's work, it is exquisitely put together and few people manage to create atmosphere in quite the same way (look no further than the poster for an example). While this is a tremendous talent, when the subject matter is as bleak as this, it doesn't always make for comfortable viewing. Each killing is portrayed in such a realistic way that I personally found them haunting, particularly the couple by the lake - a truly harrowing scene because of its execution. All of this only deepens the experience, and the recreation of San Francisco, at the time gripped in a fog of paranoia, is meticulous and expertly done. 

I don't know how true this is, but there was once a rumour that Jake Gyllenhaal was forced to do upwards of sixty takes of him opening a fridge. Common sense would dictate that no production, or actor, could sustain this level of pedanticism but A) this is not the first rumour of the like from actors about working with Fincher and B) you can't help but wonder, such is the level of craft on display here. 

The story itself centres around Robert Graysmith and his novel 'Zodiac'. Graysmith worked as a cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle at the time of the murders and begins as a periphery character in the investigation, playing second fiddle, at first, to Robert Downey Jr's seasoned veteran reporter (Paul Avery) and Mark Ruffalo as Dave Toschi - the lead homicide detective on the killer's trail. However, as the story becomes more compelling and the killer's moves become more cryptic, Graysmith finds himself delving deeper and deeper into the story, becoming slowly obsessed to point of sacrificing everything, including his own sanity, to find out who is behind The Zodiac. 

Fincher sighted Alan J. Paluka's 1970's classic 'All The President's Men' as a major influence and you can feel it everywhere. Most of the action takes place in conversations between small groups of people, either in cars, or coffee shops, or the newsroom of the Chronicle itself. Similar to 'All The President's Men', the people at the centre of the drama follow events methodically. Nothing feels forced. Every move they make is driven by logic and they are continually on the precipice of either cracking the case wide open or completely falling apart. All of which makes for a riveting watch. 

As the years go by, the sense of dread is slowly ratcheted up. Each character descends into their own personal hell trying to answer the questions brought forth by this case. All of this is done in a way which feels completely authentic and it was apparently Fincher himself who insisted that the script be continuously monitored to not only measure up to the source material, but the police records too. One producer was noted as saying that, at the time of filming, there was no one more knowledgable on this case than David Fincher. You can see why. 

The performances are great, as you'd expect from three heavyweights of modern cinema, and because of the draw of the film's director, there are cameos in there from the likes of Phillip Baker Hall, Brian Cox (utterly memorable as Melvin Belli) and Chloe Sevigny as Graysmith's quietly suffering partner. The cinematography almost completely steals the show. There are many inventive uses of light and set-up but probably none as effective as the opening shot itself. It is simply a POV angle of a car rolling through Vallejo in the 1960s on July 4th night, which feels effortless. But when you realise that all of this is staged, you realise just how well this shot is crafted. Beautiful stuff. In fact, it's all done so well that none of this feels overbearing. It is not style for style's sake, it just creates a world for this story to flourish, Harris Savides once again delivering the goods in that department. 

Because the case itself remains unsolved, the film has to know going in that it is not going to be able to deliver a satisfying catharsis for an ending. This is often a tricky thing to negotiate. How do you present a compelling story with no ending? For the most part, they do a wonderful job in the execution of this. Everything, again, is presented with detail and nuance which is all rooted in fact. They've got a pretty good idea who did it, based on the evidence, but they will never know. This fact almost eats Graysmith alive and he goes to great lengths to try and reconcile that. It literally eats Paul Avery alive. Toschi, from years of working in the SF police force (side note: the character of Dirty Harry was based on him) has the more diplomatic view of 'you can't win them all' but still you feel his hurt.  

Overall, this film is an atmospheric, at times deeply unsettling, crime drama that plays out, as most of the best work seems to, like everyone involved really cares about portraying events exactly as they went down. From Fincher's standpoint, this could so easily have been another 'Seven', but somehow - despite the fact they are both dark serial killer movies directed by the same person - doesn't feel anything like it. It is a brilliant re-creation of a time where paranoia ran rampant and serves as yet another reminder that pretty much anything David Fincher does is, at the very least, a superbly crafted piece of cinema. 

JB.