 |
|
|
Dashiell's Flicks: |
The Big Picture
No, this film is really about the men who became obsessed with catching the Zodiac, and in fact about the very state of mind of being obsessed with a criminal case, with all the intense concentration and accretion of detail that it involves. After his crimes, the Zodiac sent letters to the San Francisco newspapers that included messages in ciphers and threats of future murders. At the Chronicle we meet the flamboyant reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey, Screenwriter James Vanderbilt crams the picture with interlocking clues, pieces of evidence, and false leads, like a huge jigsaw puzzle, and part of the film’s fascination is this concern with all the minutia of a difficult real-life mystery. Rather than try to deliver thrills or action, Fincher focuses on process, all the things that have to come together to make a case, and this makes this 2 ½ hour film an intensely cerebral experience. Anyone who’s gotten wrapped up in the web of a complicated unsolved mystery will know the feeling Fincher is trying to capture here. At the same time, there is a price to pay. We see the story eat away at the reporter Avery until he begins to disintegrate into alcoholism and erratic behavior, while the cop Toschi’s years of work on the case start to drive him crazy with frustration. After a while, when the murders end and the letters stop coming, everyone gives up except the young Graysmith, and at this point Gyllenhaal becomes the center of the film, his character giving up most of his ordinary life to his search for the solution, while neglecting his family (Chloë Sevigny does as well as could be expected in the thankless “exasperated wife” role) and almost going over the edge into full-scale paranoia.
Fincher jumps rapidly across time, in a case that covers 22 years, with the flick of screen titles such as “four weeks later” or even “seven years later.” He’s committed to telling the whole story without having to cut too many corners. Most of the writing is bracingly crisp, with characters talking at cross purposes and behaving in unexpected ways. There are lots of good supporting actors on hand, including Anthony Edwards in a marvelously understated turn as Toschi’s partner, Elias Koteas as a hard-working Ventura police chief, and Brian Cox in a satiric flourish as big-shot lawyer Melvin Belli. The high-def digital photography by Harris Savides is dusky like a vintage 70s movie—and then the colors get brighter during the story’s later ©2007 Chris Dashiell |
Jr.) who becomes the number one journalist on the story. Also at the Chronicle is young editorial cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), a straight-arrow type whose interest in codes hooks him into the case. We then shift to homicide detective Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and his painstaking and relentless investigation. These three men are the interweaving strands of the film’s structure. 
The script emphasizes the boyishness of Gyllenhaal’s character, and he’s fine within that range. Ruffalo’s work is more interesting—he conveys both a passion for the job of a detective and the kind of jaded world-weariness that comes with the territory, and you can see how the case gradually erodes his self-confidence. Downey is fantastic as the self-destructive reporter Avery. The actor’s life experiences undoubtedly aid him in a role like this, but in any case he embodies the figure of the cynical, charismatic, all-too knowing iconoclast.
sections. The film makes you feel like you’ve lived through an era in San Francisco, and a never-ending nightmare in the minds of the people charged with finding the truth. That’s one of the brilliant things about