Entertainment
Netflix Has The Best Whodunit Of All Time
By Robert Scucci
| Published
I have a confession to make that I’m not particularly proud of, but feel like it’s time to come clean. I watched David Fincher’s Zodiac for the first time this week, and it’s because I hate movies with long runtimes. I also hate when true crime stories are fictionalized to the point of being unrecognizable, and I feared this movie wouldn’t stay faithful to the meticulously documented source material.
Having read both of Robert Graysmith’s novels that the film is based on, Zodiac and Zodiac Unmasked, long before the movie was even a glimmer in Fincher’s eye, I finally decided to give it a go. After thinking about it, the runtime actually makes a whole lot of sense, and Fincher already wowed me with Mindhunter, one of the best true crime adaptations ever made.
Given the staggering amount of compiled investigative resources found in Graysmith’s books, it’s not humanly possible for a historically accurate piece like Zodiac to be in and out within 90 minutes. And while I generally have no problem with creative liberties, I prefer when my true crime dramas remain faithful to the events they’re recreating.
I was expecting another Monster: The Ed Gein Story, which was kind of fun but grossly misleading. Instead, I got a movie that plays out like the books, treating the source material like both a character bible and a style guide.
A Picture-Perfect Of The Zodiac Killer’s Life And Times
Zodiac is a thorough and thought-provoking take on the Zodiac Killer’s crimes as seen by Robert Graysmith (portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal), the cartoonist turned de facto investigator, whose obsession with finding the killer’s true identity basically destroyed his life. Working in an unofficial capacity alongside Inspector Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo), Robert uses his book smarts to track down leads and arrive at his own conclusions about the string of killings that started on July 4, 1969 and terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area for decades.
Playing out like a straight-up police procedural, we see how Robert’s obsession takes hold, disintegrating his family life long after the case goes cold and authorities move on to other active crimes. Introducing us to other key players like alcoholic journalist Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) and Inspector Bill Armstrong (Anthony Edwards), Zodiac leaves no stone unturned. It’s clear that Fincher had intimate knowledge of the case files and Graysmith’s novels, which you can see being developed in real time within the film’s fiction.
A Level Of Realism That Hasn’t Been Seen Since
Knowing now what I didn’t know before, I regret not giving Zodiac a chance when it was still in theaters. It’s a perfect true crime story, using Graysmith’s work as a launch point to draw attention to one of the greatest unsolved mysteries our nation has ever witnessed. Graysmith, a cartoonist and bookworm who didn’t have access to privileged information like the detectives did, circumvented bureaucratic red tape to conduct his own research, crack some of the Zodiac Killer’s then-unsolved ciphers, and essentially become a detective in his own right. His obsession centered on the mystery man who had five confirmed kills but claimed to have executed 37 in total.
Through a mix of blue screens and a surprising amount of CGI, Fincher recreates settings with such precision that you could mistake Zodiac for a film shot in the actual era the crimes were committed. This level of immersion carries into the characterization as well. Robert Graysmith and Dave Toschi’s lives fall apart as they attempt to bring Zodiac to justice. They butt heads, but try to help each other. Toschi eventually distances himself from Graysmith, but only until Graysmith names who he believes the primary suspect is, a man Toschi had been watching since he first became involved with the case: Arthur Leigh Allen (John Carroll Lynch).
An Unsolved Crime Drama That Lays All The Cards On The Table
Though the Zodiac Killer’s true identity was never confirmed, most documentaries before and since lean toward Allen being the man behind the slayings. Functioning as a way to encourage viewers to do their own sleuthing, Zodiac is a factually grounded take on events based on Graysmith’s work. It’s also one of the rare cases in which law enforcement is shown in a favorable light. Most true crime stories, unfortunately, uncover negligence and poor communication across precincts in other nationally recognized cases that either remain unsolved or simply took too long to close out when crucial evidence and witness testimonials were ignored.
Mad at myself for passing on Zodiac for so long, I’ve made peace with my regret and now feel obligated to urge any true crime fan who had doubts to fire it up on Netflix and appreciate the insane attention to detail that Fincher put into what many critics consider his magnum opus.
