Zodiac-An Unsolved Murder, Like that Piece of Hanging Skin At The Roof of a Burned Mouth

Opening scene, July 4th, 1969, a young couple, Darleen Farris and Mike Mageau, are assaulted by a mysterious marauder wielding a hand gun at a lover's lane location in Vallejo, California.  Mageau survives, Farris does not.   One month later, the Sanfrancisco Chronicle began getting taunting letters making fun of the police and their progress on the murder, accompanied by cryptograms.  Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr) is the tenacious crime reporter assigned to that beat and Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a Chronicle cartoonist has a knack for puzzles and finds himself drawn to the case.  Later, his interest becomes a burning obsession, which brings him in touch with the cops in various departments in the area as they work the murders that start stacking up.  It becomes a part of local folklore.  It is even the inspiration of the Scorpio killer in the first Dirty Harry movie.  The Zodiac killer not only consumes lives, he destroys careers and families of the people pursuing him. 

Unsolved murders have a particular fascination.  From the puzzle that refuses solution to the idea of the boogeyman still lurking in the shadows, history's Jack the Ripper, my hometown's (Texarkana) Phantom Killer and more, these figures frighten and fascinate in equal measure.

David Fincher plays down the theatrics he sometimes is known for and plays down the gimmicks as well.  His skill here is demonstrated primarily in just bringing to life the people and times of late sixties, early to mid seventies Bay Area California, with locations and music that take you there.  Less about suspense and chills and more about the multi-layered puzzle that is the Zodiac Killer and the emotional and spiritual stresses pulling at the killer's pursuers as they continue on their course.

If you are looking for slasher porn or heebie jeebies, this is not your film.  This is, though, a real life mystery and a film that lets the mystery tell itself.  Fincher is a director who knows just when to step up and knows when to back off.  When it comes to being a dance partner with the material, David Fincher is a man who knows how to lead and knows when to let his dance partner call the tune.

Great flick and an education in a particular chapter of American crime history.