#6. Zodiac (2007)
(director: David Fincher; starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey, Jr.)
“There’s more than one way to lose your life to a killer.” Thus read the tagline for David Fincher’s murder mystery based on the real life Zodiac murderer that haunted the San Francisco bay area during the late sixties and early seventies, and it’s a surprisingly perceptive insight into the movie’s deeper significance. Already having made a name for himself in the genre with movies such as Se7en, Zodiac turns many of those conventions on their head by drowning itself in the details of the case, painting it as anything but a thrill-a-minute case, the passage of years, decades even without any new clues given taking a heavy emotional toll on those who dedicated themselves to capturing the killer. Less interested in the identity of the Zodiac than the elusiveness of truth and the obsession created with finding it, Fincher’s direction sweeps us into the search with the detectives and reporters, sharing in their frustration at another dead-end or lost clue while their own lives slip away from under them in the pursuit. The identity of the Zodiac killer is still unknown to this day, although by the end the movie clearly indicates a preferred suspect. A few scenes of actual bloody suspense highlight the mundane emptiness of the rest of the film, that by the end a nostalgia is created for the days the Zodiac was still offing people. If I have one complaint it’s that the actors to appear to age to the degree that they should; leads Jake Gyllenhall, Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey, Jr. all do a fantastic job at adding depth to their characters. In a year saturated with high-profile ‘killer’ movies, Zodiac holds its own very well and emerges as one of the most vital of the decade.
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