A dozen years ago, with the disturbing, graphic serial killer procedural "Seven," David Fincher staked his claim as one of the more intriguing young American directors. Since then, his films -- "The Game," "Fight Club" and "Panic Room" -- have helped cement his reputation as a visually sophisticated stylist while dividing critics on their substance.
So it comes as something of a surprise that Fincher's latest, "Zodiac," is primarily a complex character study, despite the film's grim and gruesome subject matter. It's a role reversal of sorts for a director who normally emphasizes the brutal tension in his movies.
Written by James Vanderbilt based on Robert Graysmith's nonfiction book, the intelligent thriller delves into the compulsive effect that the Zodiac killer case had on the Bay Area police detectives and journalists investigating it.
Overlong and lacking dramatic focus, the film nevertheless captures the dark allure that the unsolved crimes had on the region over a 22-year period. Taunting police with threatening letters and ciphers sent to newspapers, the Zodiac terrorized Northern California by claiming responsibility for 13 murders. Combing through 2,500 suspects, the multi-jurisdictional manhunt is fascinating in its minutia and the ways the men respond to the pressures of pursuing a madman.
The Zodiac inspired at least half a dozen earlier movies -- notably "Dirty Harry" -- and serial killers in general tend to provoke filmmakers to action. Often, however, their stories tend to become jumping-off points for creating horror films. Vanderbilt and Fincher, on the other hand, are far more interested in the psychological elements, particularly the toll that reaches beyond the victims, although the story is sometimes overwhelmed by the vast amount of detail they shoehorn into the film.
The filmmakers enhanced their characters mightily by assembling a top-drawer cast. Headed by Jake Gyllenhaal as Graysmith, the San Francisco Chronicle political cartoonist who would eventually become the primary author on the subject, Mark Ruffalo as lead San Francisco Police Department Inspector Dave Toschi and Robert Downey Jr. as Chronicle crime reporter Paul Avery, the actors get at the heart of what drove these men and the price they paid for their commitment.
There are really two movies going on, the more pro forma detective story focusing on the police and a slightly goofy yarn involving the journalists.
