A film as a monument of cinema

There are films that, through their formal rigor and refusal of spectacular compromises, impose themselves as unavoidable monuments of the seventh art. Zodiac, a 2007 thriller directed by David Fincher and available on Netflix, undoubtedly belongs to this category.

A complex narrative and strong cast

Reconstructing over two decades the obsessive pursuit of an unidentified serial killer, while bringing together on the same set a trio of intense actors such as Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., and Mark Ruffalo, is almost like the alignment of planets. The director, already praised for his dark explorations of the human psyche, delivers here a monumental work that abandons visual artifices in favor of clinical precision.

The story behind the film

The story? At the end of the 1960s, a sadistic killer begins to terrorize the San Francisco area, taunting the police and the press by sending encrypted letters and coded messages to editorial offices, notably to the San Francisco Chronicle. Facing him, four men try to decipher his puzzles: detectives Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and Bill Armstrong (Anthony Edwards), the star journalist Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.), and the shy young cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal).

Based on real events and documented research

The latter, passionate about puzzles and outside the official investigation, will gradually become consumed by this case, dedicating more than ten years of his life at the expense of his own family. It is the screenwriter James Vanderbilt who based himself on Graysmith's highly documented works to structure this immense procedural fresco.

A departure from thriller conventions

Where a classic thriller would promise a reassuring resolution and a spectacular arrest, Fincher absolutely takes the opposite approach of the genre. He films the slow wear of time, the accumulation of dusty reports, false leads, and the mental exhaustion of those who track a shadow.

A box office failure that gained recognition

Despite its evident qualities, Zodiac was not a box office success. Far from it. With a substantial budget of 65 million dollars, it earned less than 85 million dollars at the international box office. A great injustice, which time has fortunately corrected. To watch (or rewatch!) on Netflix.