by tapehead on Mon May 28, 2007 7:07 am
Having just seen this last night, I'm full of admiration for the mastery of this piece and the ideas in it, although it doesn't seem like I'm going to in the majority on this point, judging by most of the reviews above.
The three films I kept referring to watch it were Fincher's own Se7en, Spielberg's Munich, and Spike Lee's Summer of Sam, all for obvious reasons; Se7en is Fincher's first work concerned with a serial killer, and it seems obvious, in retropect, that he must have researched cases like the Zodiac for that film. Stylistically, Se7en is a triumph, but I think the maturity and restraint, as well as respect for the subject matter in Zodiac makes it a more profound film.
The recreation of late Sixties, early Seventies San Francisco in such bewildering detail is just stunning; so many of the soaring nightscapes must involve huge amounts of digital compositing and cgi to 'devolve' the landscape back in time.
I'd be really interested for instance to know which building it is we see built in the timelapse shot in the later third of the movie - just astonishing, and easily the equal of Spielberg's work in Munich; the difference being of course, that Fincher has achieved this environment through a HD Viper lens, rather than going back to the colour schemes, stocks and cameras of the Seventies. He also relies heavily on period music; for instance Dovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man in the opening depiction of the Killer's first known murder, finds a chilling psychotic edge in the trippy vocals and rocking drums I'd never heard before.
Unfortunately I watched it in an old-fashioned film projection, and I'm beginning to be frustrated by a shuddering, stepping quality in the camera moves, pans and tilts that these HD works have when they are transferred - and the projection of Zodiac I watched tonight suffered markedly from this trait. Otherwise the muted colour scheme full of greys and browns is fantastically well suits to the film's tone, and Fincher still has ample opportunity to work his favourite baroque angles and movements.
The cast is also perhaps the best, and certainly the largest ensemble that Fincher has assembled; unfeasibly handsome, but nevertheless the unlikely pairing of Gyllenhaal and Downey Jr, and the touchingly simpatico pair of Ruffalo and Edwards (their first scenes around the cab driver's murder had me in stitches with their dead-pan squabbling) provide much of the story's dynamic, managing to engross me still in the moments where the case went nowhere and the leads were getting colder. The focus on the actual investigation works better for me than Spike Lee's look at mid-seventies life in New York when Son of Sam (named for his similarities to the Zodiac) gripped communities in fear. Only a few times does Zodiac rely upon the mainstays of police procedurals, but when it does, it manages to make it riveting.
I'm not sure I was completely sold on Graysmith's descent into obsession - Gylenhaal is a good actor and immensely likeable, but this is the second time, including Jarhead that I have found his performance a little underplayed, perhaps not quite enough depth to his portrayal, and a little too much reliance in the perception of him as the earnest boy scout.
It's this factor that stopped me from scoring this highter than an eight - supporting characters played by Brian Cox, Elias Koteas and John Carroll Lynch as the 'man most likely' were all spot on, and even Chloe Sevigny managed quite a good deal with fuck all to work with without betraying the subtlety the role as Graysmith's wife demanded.
I almost, at certain moments, thought I might have preferred staying with Downey's Avery as he descended into drugs and disease rather than Gyllenhaal's dogged but slightly dull portrayal. However the last half hour hit the mark again, and I even enjoyed the short sequence in the Cinema organist's house where Graysmith's mania creeps close to hysteria, and for me, that moment where he confronts the probable killer, and that look they share - just right.
No dramatic finale, none of the over-the-top showdown of Fincher's earlier Se7en, (which right now, I think Zodiac surpasses), just a smouldering, near perfect, resolution.
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