Zodiac

So, let's do a quick review of David Fincher's film career:

"Alien3" -- The darkest installment of an already fairly grim series. Many hated it, but I thought it was great. Already I could tell I liked the way Fincher would shoot a scene, even a standard dialogue scene.

"Seven" -- So, first off, I refuse to put the number 7 into the word. It's just dumb. (Also, that TV show on CBS about math? It's "Numbers".) This was probably the best movie I will NEVER watch again. Too hideously horrific for words. But really, really good.

"The Game" -- Who knew? Fincher has a lighter side. Sort of. This is probably the best film that Michael Douglas or Sean Penn ever made. The tone, the script, the look, the performances, the story. It all clicked for me.

"Fight Club" -- His Magnum Opus. There's just so much freakin' inventiveness stuffed into this bizarre treat of a movie, I could watch it again and again, and I have.

"Panic Room" -- Fincher's most sedate affair to date. Sure, there's some swoopy camera moves and plenty of blood, but it's a thriller in the most Hitchcockian tradition.

When I heard he was making a movie about the Zodiac killer, I thought, "Meh." When I saw the first trailer, I thought, "Meh." The TV spots, the cast, everything said that Fincher's streak was over.

Then I started looking at the reviews. They were good. Raves, in fact. I said to myself, "Okay, maybe I was wrong. Maybe this really is something special."

Having now seen "Zodiac", it's clear to me that David Fincher has become an important director. And when I use the word "important" I mean "boring". Don't get me wrong, "Zodiac" isn't as important as, say, an Eastwood film. But it's pretty freakin' important. Particularly the last third or so. It was so important I was really checking my watch.

Okay, so, what's good. Well, there's really no bad performances. Gyllenhaal, Downey, Ruffalo, Edwards. All good. I enjoyed some of the smaller roles even more. Chloë Sevigny as a long-suffering wife. Brian Cox not playing a morally corrupt government agent. John Terry not abusing his son Jack in any sort of flashback. Charles Fleischer, who never once in the films says, "P-p-p-p-p-lease, Eddie!"

I do have to take the film to task for the casting of the Zodiac (or, at least the guy they want us to believe was the Zodiac). I know this actor mostly because he played a cross-dresser in a 90's sitcom. Couldn't get that out of my head. Made it hard to find him really scary. But that's a personal problem.

And this film also had some of the best CG work I've ever seen, which you really don't expect in a police procedural. They had to do some fancy stuff to make San Francisco look like it was 1969, before the TransAmerica Tower was built. And that shot of the cab from above where the camera seems to follow the cab, even around turns. I realized it has to be CG, but it looks amazing. (The shot of the Golden Gate Bridge in the fog looks a little fake, though.)

The problem is that Fincher tries pretty hard to make this film look like it was really made in the seventies, even down to the studio logos at the beginning. Some of that's fun, like the throwback technology and the reference to Dirty Harry. But style-wise, everything is a little staid, a little calm. It doesn't have half the pop of any of his other works. And it's too long. Way too long. I realize there's a whole mythology that surrounds this particular serial killer and they wanted to get in as much as they could, but when the police give up and it's just the cartoonist (Gyllenhaal), the movie practically grinds to a halt. That section could use a serious trim IMHO.

It's certainly not a bad movie, but I just didn't really enjoy it much.

Comments

[David Gaw]

My enjoyment of the film would doubtless be further hampered by the fact that as a police procedural, it falls squarely among the types of story that just don't often interest me much. (There are exceptions, but not many.)

I was trying to figure out, by the way, why I recognize the name Chloë Sevigny but couldn't place her face. It's because she's been acting since 1995, but has managed to appear in literally nothing that I've seen.