Week Of February 26, 2007 - Mon / Wed / Fri

February 28, 2007

The Hills Aren't Alive...

I wish I could be more positive about Zodiac. I am a big Fincher fan and I think he is capable of real greatness. He is also capable of tying himself up in knots of nothingness with his clever brain. Zodiac is such a twist.

For me, the central gag that typifies so much of the film is Mark Ruffalo/David Toschi's repeated request for animal cookies. It's one of those things you throw into a movie to establish character. But like many of the similar gimmicks in the film, it just doesn't add up to anything. Worse, it comes from nowhere (except perhaps reality, which is not enough to merit inclusion in a drama).

I will say this. On a second viewing, what seemed like a bit of a relentless dirge into nothingness did appear to have a more clear three act structure. Act One: The Murders. Act Two: The Cops. Act Three: The Cartoonist Turned Hardy Boy.

No question, Act One is the best. Here is where Fincher is able to do what he does best and to do it with some new turns. Even the odd beats - which, with a perfectionist like Fincher, had to be intentional - like a woman driving a car and losing any pretense of watching the road, basically works, since Fincher is so busy channeling Hitchcock and a ton of specific movie references along the way.

In Act Three, Fincher goes back to that well with a scene I won't even hint at, lest it be a spoiler. But it is an empty effort that, in retrospect, seems patronizing to the audience. Of course, it works in and of itself. So that may be okay. Ultimately, movies are for audiences and they appreciate an occasional spray of chocolate sauce, even if it is all calories and no substance.

The murders that launched the Zodiac case mostly occur in the first 30 minutes. 30 minutes later, another, which introduces us to The Cops. Returning to the scene of that crime will be an annual marker as time passes in the second and third acts.

We meet Robert Downey, Jr., as the too-cool-for-school crime beat reporter, Jake Gyllenhaal as the too-Boy-Scout SF Chronicle political cartoonist with an interest in Zodiac, Mark Ruffalo as the soft-eyed cop who takes it all very hard, Anthony Edwards as his painfully underwritten partner, and… well, that's pretty much all that matters. We'll later meet Chloe Sevigny as a doe-eyed girlfriend who is stuck with more exposition than she deserves.

The progression goes murders to cops to Downey to Gyllenhaal to the end. But the inherent problem is that note one of these characters are given enough motive to explain not their actions, but their emotional connection to the Zodiac case. This, of course, is bait to critics, who want to believe that the lack of emotion or motive is somehow deeper than emotion or motive… those crazy traditions that have driven storytelling for thousands of years. It is, in some ways, a post-Hollywood movie, so steeped in meta self-awareness that it simply thinks it doesn't need to explain itself. If a cop visits the scene of an unsolved crime every year, that is enough to tell us that he has a deeply held interest in what happens.

Of course, Fincher has such great taste in actors that it's hard to really hate, for instance, the lame version of CSI that makes up the second act. Not only the leads, but small supporting turns by Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, Brian Cox, Philip Baker Hall, Clea DuVall (whose character leaves the biggest unfilled plot hole in the film), Adam Goldberg, James LeGros, and John Terry. And there are unexpected home run cameos by John Carroll Lynch and Charles Fleischer.

But typical of these small roles is Clea DuVall, who is posing for a lesbian prison Guess ad when we meet her and then, while giving a nice performance, is more interesting for the unexplained bruises on her arm than anything else. That is Fincher. She is part actor/part prop. And that is endemic to this film.

It would be unfair to simply reduce this film to CSI: San Francisco combined with David Fincher's show off of how many old films shot in the city and which he loves. Fincher has got major skills. But unlike Fight Club and Se7en and even The Game, which had big themes floating underneath the non-stop breathless imagery, Zodiac says almost nothing… except that 70s hair and fashion is looking kinda interesting these days.

I forgave this while watching, but it occurs to me now that SF was a hotbed of sexual politics and self-enlightenment at the time of the first half of this film, but you would never know from watching this. The only sex or sexuality that exists at all in the movie is a bit of flouncing by one of the suspects. We are pushed to notice it by Fincher's camera, but the film doesn't have the balls to address the issue directly, even using uptight cops as a proxy. Even in one sequence of the film, with a literally moist blonde who takes a boy to a make-out spot and apparently has both suitors, droolers, and a husband on her tail, there is no threat of sex in the scene, except peripherally in the age that is visited upon her.

But that really is a digression. I am far more disappointed by the lack of context in the lives of the central characters. Fine, I am more than a little willing to go along with characters who become more and more obsessive as they flail about, looking for an answer to an unanswerable question that means something powerful to them. One of the greatest season of network television in history was the first year of Homicide: Life On The Street in which Tim Bayless (Kyle Secor) suffers in episode after episode with the frustration of not being able to close the murder case of 12-year-old Adena Watson.

And no, I don't need the film to be like that TV show. But as often comes up, I think the film needs to make some choices. And it refuses. It's not a film about not catching a killer and it's not a film about catching a killer and it's not a film about what drives a man to give up everything to indulge his obsessions and it's not a film about self-destruction and it's not a film about… really much of anything at all… except telling a true story in what I assume is a truthful way. But truth is not necessarily drama, even when it is delivered by a master craftsman.

Ironically, there is a movie out there which really does what Fincher seemed to be after with great success... Bong Joon-Ho's Memories of Murder, which is available on DVD in America now.

But maybe Zodiac is like a comedy, where four great, highly tense scenes plus a wacky Downey and a lot of period imagery is enough for some audiences.

Not for me.

E Me.

---

Week Of April 3, 2006 - Life In the Bubble - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of April 10, 2006 - List Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of April 17, 2006 - Review Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of April 24, 2006 - Overlooked Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 1, 2006 - Mystery Week - Tue / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 8, 2006 - How We Watch Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 15, 2006 - Premature Week - Oscar Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 22, 2006 - B-13 Mon / Inconvenient Wed / Fri
Week Of May 29, 2006 - Wed / Fri
Week Of June 5, 2006 - 666 Tue / Iraq Doc Wed / Seattle Fri
Week Of June 12, 2006 - SIFF Mon / SIFF Wed / Fri
Week Of June 19, 2006 - Cinevegas Mon/Deliver Us Wed/Prada Fri
Week Of June 26, 2006 - Pirates Mon / Super Again Wed / Fri
Week Of July 5, 2006 - Wed
Week Of July 12, 2006 - M. Night Mon | You, Me & Wed | Monster House Fri
Week Of July 17, 2006 - 8 A Year Mon / Water Wed / Revamp Fri
Week Of July 24, 2006 - Comic-Con Mon / Gossip Wed / Fri
Week Of July 31, 2006 - Mel G Mon / Talladega Wed / Fri
Week Of August 7, 2006 - Mon / Wed
Week Of August 14, 2006 - No Column Mon / Wed / Snakes Fri
Week Of August 21, 2006 - Snakey Mon / Anniversary Wed / Scoundrels Fri
Week Of August 28, 2006 - Mon Love / Berloff Wed / Fri
Week Of September 4, 2006 - Thur
Week Of September 11, 2006 - TIFF Mon / Bobby Wed / Fr
Week Of September 18, 2006 - Mon / TIFF 1 Wed / TIFF 2 Fri
Week Of September 25, 2006 - Mon / Wed
Week Of October 2, 2006 - Atonement Mon / Wed / Indie Fri
Week Of October 9, 2006 - Flags Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of October 16, 2006 - Mon / Epagogix Wed
Week Of October 23, 2006 - TCIFF Mon / Wed / Catch A Fri
Week Of October 30, 2006 - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of November 6, 2006 - Mon / Dead Girl Wed / Fri
Week Of November 13, 2006 - Bond Mon / Wed / TomKat Fri
Week Of November 20, 2006 - Mon / Thankful Wed
Week Of November 27, 2006 - Mon / Auteur Wed / Blood D Fri
Week Of December 4, 2006 - Mon / Wed
Week Of December 11, 2006 - Mon / Wed
Week Of December 18, 2006 - Mon / Wed / COM Fri
Week Of December 27, 2006 - Wed / Worst of 2006 Fri
Week Of Janiuary 3, 2007 - Best Of 2006 Wed
Week Of Janiuary 8, 2007 - Mon / COM Book Wed
Week Of January 17, 2007 - Little Red Writing Hood Wed
Week Of January 29, 2007 - Mon
Week Of February 5, 2007 -This Thing We Do Wk - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of February 12, 2007 - Mon / Wed / Fri