Zodiac marks the birth of our nation’s first sophisticated serial killer, and the stories of two different individuals who almost ruin their lives working to solve the case.

Zodiac is based on the novel by Robert Graysmith, who is also one of the central characters of the film. Robert Downy Jr. is in top form as seasoned haggard journalist Paul Avery assigned to cover the story, and Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a young idealistic political cartoonist curious about the Zodiac; both work for the San Francisco Chronicle. There is also the police investigation perspective, both lead officers are played by Mark Ruffalo (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and Anthony Edwards (E.R., Revenge of the Nerds). What follows is a matter of fact, cold insight into the people involved and investigating the crime over a decade or so.

Starting with the first of several murders, Zodiac is a slow dark ride through a changing San Francisco in the late 1960’s. The dark mood is immediately set up when Donavan’s Hurdy Gurdy man is heard in the background coming from the car; you know the young couple is doomed. This movie is about quiet obsession and characters, and not as much about the murders, which is a departure for director David Fincher. Those expecting to see another Se7en or Fight Club might be disappointed, but in this reviewers eyes David Fincher has done his finest, and most mature film to date. One of the main differences between Zodiac and his previous films is that it is cerebral, quiet and reserved. It is closer in style to All the Presidents men (1976) or a Hitchcock film than any of his previous work.

The casting is genius by going against type in using John Carroll Lynch of the Drew Carrey show as the main suspect Arthur Leigh Allen. He is cocky and arrogant, yet he subtly antagonizes his interrogators. They never really appear as stupid, but it appears that he has outwitted them. The death scenes (although very few) are up there with the most memorable in any movie, they aren’t long and drawn out. You almost get the feeling that you are a kid, and you just witnessed something that you weren’t supposed to; like the perspective of a voyeur almost. This effect was probably successful because David Fincher was about 7 or 8 and living in Marin County (near San Francisco) at the time. Fincher just knows how to get you creeped out.

Much of this film is my early youth. The cars, the color, the songs - it was as if I was looking through a box of old pictures, sometimes familiar and haunting. I grew up out west, and spent a lot of time in San Francisco, and every scene seemed authentic. There is one point in the film where we see a time lapse of the Trans America building being constructed, not just for special effects, but to emphasize the passage of time that the characters are going through. This is one of the many subtleties that made the film successful – pure genius. Zodiac is as much a story about the waking up of America, as it is its central characters. The film is cold, slow, and generally sad and lonely; strangely enough, those are places I don’t mind going from time to time. Sofar, Zodiac is my favorite film for 2007.

I wanted to leave this out of the general review, but on a technical note, this movie was shot in HD; no film involved – it looks incredible. I would have thought Fincher was filming with actual 1970’s film stock if I didn’t know any better.