by The Film Blogger

Created on: September 11, 2009

David Fincher's Zodiac has been a long time in the making, Fincher himself spending 18-months reading and examining case files of the Zodiac killer's purported crimes, and aiming to create a work that was highly accurate to the actual events themselves. On the heels of overwhelmingly positive reviews, yet with detractors however claiming the film drags its feet and offers an unsatisfying conclusion, does Fincher deliver the goods again, as he so frequently does?

A resounding "yes" is in order, to say the least - Zodiac is one of the most visceral, realistic and engrossing serial killer films ever committed to screen. All of the literature based on the Zodiac killer is brought kicking and screaming to life in a project that will likely be considered a future cult classic by those willing to give it a chance. However, if you go in expecting a thrills-per-second, explosion-filled twist-fest, you will invariably be disappointed. Zodiac is above any kind of reproach to that effect, and instead relies on a tight script, utterly flawless direction, and a historical accuracy almost entirely amiss in Hollywood.

Zodiac's thrilling opening scene (which is among the best in recent memory), accompanied by Donovan's appropriately creepy "Hurdy Gurdy Man", lays the atmospheric groundwork for the 158 minutes to follow. Fincher's film evidently wastes little time, with the Zodiac splattering his first victims mere minutes into the picture in a frenzied attack, and it takes little more than this to convince one that Fincher has, once again, served up something special. Fincher's seeming accuracy to the period of the late 60s and early 70s is staggering; the cars, the clothes, and the soundtrack all exude that vibe brilliantly, and it is an unadulterated pleasure to bathe in.

Following the initial murder, the Zodiac begins to play a cat-and-mouse game with police investigators Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and William Armstrong (Anthony Edwards), as well as San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) and reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.). Graysmith in particular develops an interest which slowly becomes a potentially volatile obsession. Through all of the murders, and 2500 suspects interviewed, the film is ultimately, by its climax, a film concerned with the obsessions of everyone involved (although none more than Graysmith), and how the case came close to destroying the lives of those surrounding it. As the film's tagline itself states - "There's more

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