Zodiac (Cert. 15, 157 mins) Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr, Brian Cox, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, Chloe Sevigny, John Carroll Lynch Directed by David Fincher
IN VARIOUS books and essays on the history of criminal mind, America is credited as the birthplace of the majority of the world’s serial killers. Zodiac was, or perhaps still is, one of them.
In the sweltering summer of 1969, when most of America was preparing to celebrate peace and free love at Woodstock, the Bay Area of San Francisco was gripped with fear.
The editors of the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner and the Vallejo Times- Herald received similarly worded letters.
"I am the killer of the 2 teenagers last Christmas at Lake Herman & the girl last 4th of July . . ." began one missive.
With it came part of a cipher, which claimed to reveal the sender’s identity.
"If you do not print this cipher by the afternoon of Fry, 1st of Aug 69, I will go on a kill rampage Fry.night," warned the letter.
All three editors obliged, fearful of the repercussions, and thus the legend of Zodiac – as the killer would later call himself – was born. More murders followed: a picnicker stabbed in Napa County and her boyfriend left for dead; a taxi driver shot in the back of the head.
Law enforcement agencies seemed powerless to stop the madman, who continued to send taunting letters, including more coded messages.
David Fincher’s exhaustively researched thriller follows the efforts of four men – hard-nosed homicide detectives Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and Bill Armstrong (Anthony Edwards), San Francisco Chronicle crime reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr) and the paper’s shy cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) to bring Zodiac’s reign of terror to an end.
The men become obsessed with unmasking Zodiac, following the trail of clues for decades, edging ever closer to self-destruction.
