2008 Woodie Awards
David Fincher returns with Zodiac thriller
Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey, Jr. and Mark Ruffalo track a brutal serial killer with Seven director
Jacob Wolk
Issue date: 3/1/07 Section: Arts and Entertainment
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The yardstick for Zodiac, an expansive and captivating look at a real-life American horror story, is clearly All the President's Men.
Or Dirty Harry.
Or The Silence of the Lambs.
Less than a year since the direct-to-DVD release of The Zodiac, a fictionalized retelling of the infamous murders, comes Zodiac, a well-financed version from Warner Bros. and Paramount. Coming in at 157 minutes, Zodiac inevitably contains the occasional superfluous scene and maintains an utterly bizarre and occasionally confusing narrative.
Still, Zodiac is irrefutably director David Fincher's best and most mature film since Seven-dubious adulation considering his previous offerings include the underwhelming Panic Room and highly overrated Fight Club.
Zodiac is the "based on true facts" retelling of the still-unidentified Zodiac killer, a serial murderer who, beginning in the late 1960s, eluded police capture and taunted the San Francisco Bay Area with derisively snide letters that were sent to and published by the San Francisco Chronicle.
The focus of the film however, centers around Paul Avery (Robert Downey, Jr.), the Chronicle's ace reporter, inspector David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo), the San Francisco detective assigned to the Zodiac case, and Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), the editorial cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle and, later, the author of the book Zodiac.
As the clues surrounding the identity of the mysterious killer begin to unravel and reveal themselves, Graysmith, Avery and Toschi's interest in the case steadily develops into obsession, ruining both their careers and personal lives.
Fincher has taken a far more disciplined directorial approach than he has with previous efforts. Those who come expecting the kitschy blandness of Fight Club will be severely disappointed, save for one stylized but effective stop-frame transition, which displays the construction of the Transamerica Building in its entirety. Fincher's energy is spent primarily on creating compelling atmosphere, not self-parodying characters.
Or Dirty Harry.
Or The Silence of the Lambs.
Less than a year since the direct-to-DVD release of The Zodiac, a fictionalized retelling of the infamous murders, comes Zodiac, a well-financed version from Warner Bros. and Paramount. Coming in at 157 minutes, Zodiac inevitably contains the occasional superfluous scene and maintains an utterly bizarre and occasionally confusing narrative.
Still, Zodiac is irrefutably director David Fincher's best and most mature film since Seven-dubious adulation considering his previous offerings include the underwhelming Panic Room and highly overrated Fight Club.
Zodiac is the "based on true facts" retelling of the still-unidentified Zodiac killer, a serial murderer who, beginning in the late 1960s, eluded police capture and taunted the San Francisco Bay Area with derisively snide letters that were sent to and published by the San Francisco Chronicle.
The focus of the film however, centers around Paul Avery (Robert Downey, Jr.), the Chronicle's ace reporter, inspector David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo), the San Francisco detective assigned to the Zodiac case, and Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), the editorial cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle and, later, the author of the book Zodiac.
As the clues surrounding the identity of the mysterious killer begin to unravel and reveal themselves, Graysmith, Avery and Toschi's interest in the case steadily develops into obsession, ruining both their careers and personal lives.
Fincher has taken a far more disciplined directorial approach than he has with previous efforts. Those who come expecting the kitschy blandness of Fight Club will be severely disappointed, save for one stylized but effective stop-frame transition, which displays the construction of the Transamerica Building in its entirety. Fincher's energy is spent primarily on creating compelling atmosphere, not self-parodying characters.
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