or: Why I love quietly terrifying movies...
One word to sum it up: Terrifying.
I love David Fincher movies. There's just something about them which I love, just like there's something about Christopher Nolan movies which I love. Zodiac is no exception. It's not an all out horror or thriller, but it still managed to scare the crumbs out of me. I swear, I was biting my nails for most of this movie I was so scared.
In San Francisco, beginning in the late 1960's, a serial killer known only as 'The Zodiac Killer', taunts the local newspaper with letters using a cryptic code. Three people become particularly taken by this case: a journalist Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) who is responsible for writing about the Zodiac's killing; Inspector David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) who unsuccessfully tries to hunt down the killers true identity; and cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), who takes it upon himself to find the killer, while writing a book about the Zodiac.
While the fact that this film doesn't portray any of the Zodiac's infamous murders and just shows people describing what happened may not appeal to some people, this dialogue driven thriller is definitely worth the watch. It zeroes in on fear and it's reliance on describing the killings in other ways than showing them really scared the crap out of me. Fincher puts you into the film from the beginning; you sit there and listen to the Zodiac breathing down the phone, you are in the car with who might be the killer, you are writing the book with Robert Graysmith. This kind of thing isn't easily done, but I have never found a work to be so compelling over it's slightly long running time and come out of it with all these new fears awoken. Obviously, there aren't any clear answers at the end, which is when you might feel a little cheated, but what the hell? This psychological thriller is one that will mess with your head, just like the Zodiac did to all of those people.
The three main performances from Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., and Mark Ruffalo were all top notch, and definitely deserve more credit than they got. The fact that our hero, Robert Graysmith was a little on the weak side impacted on the film: his obsession with the Zodiac was like someone who had an obsession with comics. However, David Fincher again makes a masterpiece, albeit a fearsome and challenging one, but definitely captivating. The way he directed the stabbing scene at Lake Berryessa was singlehandedly one of the most disturbing, well-composed scenes I have ever seen.
THE VERDICT: A compelling psychological thriller with amazing performance and fantastic direction from David Fincher. A clear example of why dialogue driven thrillers are more scary than tortue porn horrors.
8/10
